andMr. MacSharry asked the Minister for Local Government the number of persons appointed to the Planning Board; the salary and expenses of each member; the number of days the board will sit each week; if they will be situated in Dublin; if a travelling allowance will be paid and at which rate; and if he will outline the other expenses allowed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Planning Board.
37.
The number of persons appointed to An Bord Pleanála is six.
The salary and expenses of each member are:
Salary: Chairman—£12,029 p.a. equivalent to the salary of a judge of the High Court: two civil servants and one local authority officer seconded temporarily from their normal posts— an additional sum of £500 p.a. over their normal pay; two other members —£8,000 p.a.
Expenses: Subsistence and travelling expenses are payable at the appropriate civil service rates.
The number of days the board will sit each week is a matter for the board. They will be situated in Dublin. Travelling allowance will be paid at the appropriate civil service rates. No other expenses have been allowed.
Is one of the members of the board a member of a political party and has he resigned from the Labour Party to take up his position on the board?
I am quite sure that members of the board are politically minded. I would be ashamed if they were not. Everybody should have some interest in politics. In fact one of the members of the board was a secretary of a branch or something like that from which position he resigned before he was appointed to the board.
What qualifications have the two people at £8,000 per year? Would the Minister also state if the board will meet every week of the year and twice or three times weekly if business demands it?
I should be surprised if the board do not meet five days a week every week except when they are on holidays or there is a public holiday. That is my assumption because I think that is what would be required of them. As regards qualifications, one of the two appointed was a planning officer with a local authority and was in charge of industry for the local authority also. He has a double qualification. The second man is an ordinary fellow, a person with the ordinary man's approach to these things. It is necessary that such a person should be on the board.
Could the Minister define the ordinary man's approach?
If the Deputy does not know what an ordinary man's approach is, I am sorry for him.
Does the Minister think that if it now takes about £50,000 a year to pay these people to do this job, he and his predecessors were very much underpaid when they did it alone?
If I thought the Deputy were coming back here I would ask him to make a proposal to give me the back pay. I agree that we were all very badly underpaid but nobody passed any remark.
Now that a gentleman who was a secretary of a Labour branch in County Meath has been appointed, will the Minister never again say anything about secretaries of Fianna Fáil cumainn?
I thought that when Fianna Fáil were making appointments they usually went very much above the secretary of the cumann. He was only a small boy. They went away up the ladder and you had to be fairly high up before you got anything.
(Interruptions.)
The Minister said that there was one man with an ordinary man's view on the board. Out of six on the board there is one with an ordinary man's approach. I am surprised at the Minister. I was against this board from the beginning. Now we are faced with a board which is being paid about £50,000 and the man in the street who could approach his own Deputy has now one representative on that board.
Let me point out that a very strong case was made by the Opposition that people on the board should all be technical people. This was probably what Deputy Dowling or Deputy MacSharry was suggesting, that they should all be people with technical or professional knowledge. All of them are except one.
Is the Minister satisfied that one ordinary man is sufficient on a board? Surely the proportion should be greater than one out of six? It was never suggested either by Deputy Dowling or Deputy MacSharry that they should be all technical men. Would the Minister not agree that the board should be weighted more in favour of the ordinary man, the term used by the Minister.
As I understand it, Deputy Dowling is saying there should be more than one non-technical person on the board. I would be going entirely against the arguments made in this House if I did that. I have appointed a board that I think will do a good job and I appeal to the House to give it a chance, not to start knocking it before it makes its first decision. I fear that is very likely to happen fairly soon.
Is the Minister satisfied that with the establishment of the new board decisions will come more speedily on planning appeals?
I am sorry I could not say that——
Is the Minister hopeful?
I and my predecessor and our Parliamentary Secretaries worked very late hours in an effort to clear the files——
I know you did.
I do not know how fast or slow the board will be. I am hoping that appeals will be dealt with more quickly because there will be people doing the job full time which we had to do along with our other work.
Will they work overtime free?
Civil servants do not get overtime, as the Deputy knows.
They do.