A report into alleged planning corruption in Donegal remains “under consideration” despite it being completed in 2017.
Senior counsel Rory Mulcahy was appointed in 2015 to conduct a review into allegations by a whistleblower that there were severe irregularities in Donegal County Council’s planning department in the early 2000s.
The Mulcahy Report was completed in June 2017 but has not yet been published.
A Department of Housing spokesperson told the Irish Examiner that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien will “bring the report to government in due course”.
It said “careful consideration” is being given to the report by Mr Mulcahy.
According to the Irish Examiner, the Department said that as the report was a scoping review, Mr Mulcahy “did not form any conclusion as to the truth or otherwise of those allegations in his report”, which are unproven.
The Department cited decisions by the Commissioner for Environmental Information in 2019 and the Information Commissioner in 2020 in relation to requests to publish the report, which it said “will also be taken into account”. “In each of these cases, both the Commissioner for Environmental Information and the Information Commissioner decided not to grant access to the report.
