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. 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

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

Mr. Myles McSweeney, B .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. 51