Cork developer Michael O’Flynn has secured the green light for a mixed-use scheme in Co Kildare despite an entity operated by serial planning objectors, the Callaghan brothers, lodging a submission on the project.
In the case, Kildare County Council has granted planning permission to O’Flynn Construction (Dublin) Ltd to proceed with the construction of 36 residential homes and two office/retail units on lands to the north of Caragh village.
The local authority has granted planning permission despite Michael Callaghan and John Callaghan’s Mayo-based group An Lucht Inbhuanaithe making a submission on the scheme.
The council decision reverses a planning refusal it issued in April of last year to Mr O’Flynn’s firm for a housing development at the site which again followed the Callaghans’ An Lucht Inbhuanaithe making a submission.
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The Callaghan brothers were at the centre of RTÉ Investigates allegations concerning payoffs to objectors in the planning system last November.
Asked to comment on the O’Flynn planning decision on Thursday, John Callaghan declined to comment.
Asked if he continues to make submissions on planning applications, Mr Callaghan replied: “I don’t have any comment to make — anything that is out there is on record.”
Asked if he is still active in the planning arena in terms of making submissions, Mr Callaghan replied: “I am not going to answer that question — no comment.”
In the An Lucht Inbhuanaithe submission, Michéal Ó Ceallacháin told the council that it must determine the application in accordance with all Irish and European Union law and policy.
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In the submission made before the Primetime programme, Mr Ó Ceallacháin said, “it is obvious that adverse impacts on the environment arise cumulatively in relation to high carbon footprint materials and inappropriate heating technology”.
He added: “Higher density should be applied even if it means developing only a part of the site.”
Mr Ó Ceallacháin said that the application proposes 36 residential units on a proportional basis of the 366 units allocated to Kildare villages.
He said that “the core strategy fails to define how many residential units are to be built per village or per plot of zoned land”.
A local farmer, Peter Robinson, objected to the housing scheme telling the council that the adverse effect of the scheme “will threaten the ongoing viability of my farming enterprise”.
The council granted planning permission for the scheme after concluding that the development would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or property in the vicinity.
When contacted on Thursday a spokesman for O’Flynn Construction declined to comment.
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