The Gazette 1971

Young Solicitors' Seminar, Killarney

About 140 members attended the eleventh seminar

organised jointly by the Society of Young Solicitors and

the Provincial Solicitors Association which was held in

glorious sunshine in the spacious Hotel Europe, near

Killarney, on 20th and 21st March. On Saturday after-

noon, Mr. E. M. Walsh, Senior Counsel, gave us the

benefit of his erudition and practical experience in

discussing "Planning Appeals under the Local Govern-

ment (Planning and Development) Act, 1963". He

emphasised that the procedure was laid down in the

(Planning Act, 1963) Permission Regulations, 1964, and

that if the application to the planning authority is in

order, it must be adjudicated upon within two months

of receipt, and a notice of intention to grant (or to

refuse) permission must be given. Section 26 of the 1963

Act regulates the procedure together with the Planning

Act, 1963, Appeals and References Regulations, 1964

(S.I. No. 216 of 1964); this limits the time for appeal to

21 days from the decision given: the written notice of

appeal must state the grounds and is often in the form

of a letter appealing against the grant or refusal of a

certain development; often the grounds of appeal are

furnished later, but it is better to state them right away

briefly, and if necessary elaborate them subsequently.

Subsequent grounds can be argued at the appeal.

Appeals are heard either orally or in writing by an

inspector who reports to the Minister, whose decision is

final. Under the 1969 Bill, it is proposed to set up a

Planning Appeals Board, consisting of a panel of two

experts, who will decide appeals; if they disagree, the

appeal has to be submitted to the Minister. The appel-

lant may be advised in advance that his appeal is hope-

less, or that his chances of success are either remote or

even; these factors will determine whether an oral

hearing is necessary, as, in such an event, the costs

would be heavier. If the appellant is almost bound to

succeed, then it would only be necessary to submit a

comprehensive and carefully prepared documentary

appeal. The grounds of appeal are circulated by the

Department to the planning authority, who will make

written submissions of the grounds of refusal; these are

circulated to applicant. Apart from the preliminary

letter, a further submission as attractive and compre-

hensive as possible should be lodged by appellant.

Under Section 55 of the 1963 Act, an unsuccessful

applicant for planning permission is entitled to claim

compensation from the planning authority, if thereby

the value of his property has diminished, provided he

does not come within the long list of exceptions set out

in Section 56. The amount of work which must be put

into an appeal must necessarily depend on the impor-

tance of the issue at stake. For instance, if a householder

applies for an extension to his house, this application

will normally succeed, but not for instance if it were

intended to erect a shop in a residential area. An appli-

cation to erect a new house in a rural area will usually

succeed. Applications to erect a housing estate must

relate to serviced land, where water and sewage are

provided; here the services of an architect would usually

be required.

Flat and Office Development

The most contentious form of residential development

was flat development; applications for these, though

frequent, are often opposed by local residents on the

grounds of traffic hazard, over-looking, incompatibilitv

with existing houses, and interference with existing

amenities, such as light. If office development, or com-

mercial and industrial development is involved, it is

necessary to have regard to the development plan,

which divides the area into zones. In a residential area

for instance, any use which tends to spoil or reduce the

peace and harmony of the area is rigorously excluded.

The Minister is slow to upset a refusal based on the

fact that a proposed development would contravene a

zoning provision in the plan. In relation to zoning, the

services of an architect are always essential and those of

a town planning consultant desirable.

Replying to questions, Mr. Walsh said that all plan-

ning authorities endeavour to make their decisions con-

sistent. If the planning authority does adjudicate, it

only issues a notification—this is not a permission to be

taken by default. As regards the time factor, the auth-

ority is deemed to have given a decision on the last day

of the period, and therefore the period of twenty-one

days runs from the last day of the two month period.

Planning permission is required to re-activate a lost user,

but this does not necessarily mean abandonment. It is

hoped that definite rules would be evolved in the event

of the Minister giving contradictory decisions. Appli-

cations for planning permission should be published in

all national newspapers, and the Irish language should

not be used as a vehicle to hide the effect of these

applications.

Regulation of the Professions

Mr. Myles McSweeney,

.L., Secretary of the Royal

Institute of Architects, then gave a talk on "The

Government Regulation of the Professions". It was

emphasised that the Government intended to extend

the Restrictive Trade Practice Regulations to services.

Mr. Colley, in a speech to the Institute of Chartered

Accountants in February 1970, had emphasised that

the charging of a fee on a percentage basis could result

in an increase in income; he therefore proposed to give

the advisory Fair Trade Commission powers to investi-

gate services. Unfair trade practices had been defined in

the 1953 Act and the present Commission tends to act

as prosecutor and judge. It is intended that an investi-

gator should decide whether a public inquiry into a

given service is necessary. It has been urged that this

investigator should preferably be an officer of the Com-

mission, and that the decisions he makes should be

preferably his own, and not those of the Commission;

the investigator's report should be available before the

inquiry begins, and it would be wise if a draft report

were sent to the parties for comment beforehand. While

fair trading rules against the public interest should be

made, certain professional practices as such could pre-

sumably be accepted. But the professions cannot refuse

to let the Government examine their practices and rules.

This experience may in practice be unpleasant, resulting

in either an adverse report or in a doubtful acquittal.

The ultimate consequences of this pressure will neces-

sarily hit the practitioner. Unfortunately the professions

had failed to explain their professional standards to the

public, and thus lacked public support. If they insist on

defending their own corner, society will pass them by.

There is a continuing duty for all professions to provide

excellent service. The Federation of Professional Asso-

ciations. whose President had recently been Mr.

McGrath, had been set up fifteen years ago but tended

to suffer from the traditional conservatism of the

professions.