In Reply to: re: street protest by the unemployed. posted by mike van dyk on November 27, 2009 at 10:02:26:

Your naiveté is touching! I think the planners' work is constantly frustrated with interference from elected auctioneers and landowners. When you hear one of them proudly boasting on local radio that they had succeeded in 'mutilating' the county development plan put together by the permanent staff of the council you get a flavour of the reality behind our planning.

It's no accident that the Minister for the Environment is overriding plans made by elected councillors.

The classic Monaghan job (see link below) where a floodplain was rezoned in spite of the permanent staff is a prime example.

We had 12 auctioneers on a council according to the Connaught Telegraph. The permanent planning staff didn't have a chance as a result. It's not fair to blame them for rezoning decisions taken by a bunch of auctioneers, large landowners, and developers or developers significant others - (and in some cases more than one of the above applied). If they boast on public radio that they mutilated the plan prepared by the officials I think that will give you a flavour of what the real situation is - they were thwarted at every turn by the construction juggernaut.

As for them getting 'massive' wages - they would typically be on just a half or a third of the equivalently qualified people doing similar jobs in private industry - architects and the like here in town. Your typical carpenter or plumber would have been earning more than most even quite senior civil servants during the boom.

• Just one example of how politicians mess the planners around.