Department of the Environment apologises to former Donegal County Council planner

The Department of the Environment has today agreed to a High Court order overturning its own findings of no evidence of wrongdoing in the planning department of Donegal County Council. 
The department has also apologised to the then senior planner who made those claims and will pay him €25,000 damages.
An apology was read in court today to Gerard Convie, a former senior planner with Donegal County Council arising from findings in the Department’s report put before the Dáil in June 2012.
The department has also agreed to pay Mr Convie, who resigned in 2007 ,€25,000 damages and costs.
Under the settlement, the report’s findings relating to Donegal are quashed.