Clare County Council need to release record of who he spoke to and what was said
The Green Party said today that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, while Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, exercised undue influence and undermined due process when he intervened in the planning system on behalf of Donald Trump.
Mr. Trump called then-Minister Varadkar and asked him to stop a planned wind farm in County Clare near his Doonbeg resort.
Speaking today, Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan TD said: “This is a shocking admission from the Taoiseach, and it harks back to the very dark days in the Irish planning system, where political interference ensured that the rich and powerful got what they wanted. The fact that the Taoiseach so flippantly admitted his intervention today only makes matters worse.
“There is no doubt that he exercised undue influence and undermined due process with his intervention. It was and is completely inappropriate. Clare County Council now need to outline who the Minister contacted and whether there is a record of what was said.”
Councillor David Healy said: “This admission comes just a week after Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, instructing Councillors to stop raising planning issues at Council meetings, for fear it would undermine the planning system. Councillors raising these objections, on the record and in a public forum, is an important and a long standing practice. Government Ministers ringing Council officials in private on behalf of developers is a completely different thing. The double standards are shocking. Fine Gael should be ashamed of themselves.”
