The Department of the Environment has agreed to a High Court order overturning its own findings of no evidence of wrongdoing in the planning department of Donegal County Council on dates mostly in the 1990s.
It has also apologised to the former senior planner who made those claims and will pay him €25,000 damages.
The apology was read in court on Friday to Gerard Convie, a senior planner with Donegal County Council until he resigned in 2007, arising from findings in the Department’s report put before the Dáil in June 2012 dimissing allegations by him of irregular planning decisions within the council.
A lawyer for the council was prevented from making submissions in the case.
The case is carried in its entirety in today’s Irish Times: