THE OIREACHTAS PUBLIC Accounts Committee (PAC) is to examine the financial statements of An Bord Pleanála tomorrow.

The planning body received €19.2 million in Exchequer funding in 2020 and recorded a net deficit of €2.6 million the same year.

Representatives from An Bord Pleanála will appear before a PAC meeting tomorrow morning.

Committee chair Brian Stanley said: “An Bord Pleanála is responsible for the independent determination of appeals and certain other matters under the Planning and Development Acts, including strategic infrastructural developments and housing schemes. The Board is accountable to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

“In 2020, the Board recorded a deficit of €2.6million due to an increase in operating expenditure for the year related to additional legal costs associated with judicial review cases taken in connection with decisions by ABP.

“Expenditure on legal costs for 2020 amounted to €8.2m, an increase of €4.8m on 2019, split between the Board’s own legal fees in respect of legal proceedings, which amounted to €4.3m, and the other sides’ legal costs of €3.9m.”

PAC is also seeking an update on the 2016 Organisational Review of An Bord Pleanála, in particular why two thirds of its 101 recommendations have yet to be implemented six years after they were published.

“The Committee wishes to examine in detail this considerable increase in legal costs, including how these fees were determined and how many relate to judicial reviews of Board decisions,” Stanley added.

An Bord Pleanála is currently embroiled in controversy relating to itsformer deputy chair Paul Hyde.

Hyde resigned last week Hyde amid an ongoing probe, lead by senior counsel Remy Farrell, into multiple planning decisions following allegations that conflicts of interest were not declared.

The report itself was due to be finished at the end of June, but has since been pushed back for another month.

When the investigation began, Hyde stepped back from his role as deputy chair of the planning authority

Hyde, who took up the role in 2019, had denied all allegations made against him of potential conflicts of interest.