“It is important to note that costs provided in the Freedom of Information (FOI) response are total costs relating to the Inquiry including the administrative costs of processing and analysing the significant number of representations made by interested parties; the significant amount of correspondence and research relating to eight separate planning applications prior to arranging the pre-inquiry meeting in 2024; and three days of hearings which took place in January 2025.”.
In a statement on January 17, the Planning Appeals Commission said the department had requested that the commissions suspend the inquiries on January 15.
“The Curraghinalt Project (Dalradian) Inquiry is unprecedented in the history of the Planning Appeals Commission in terms of its complexity and scale,” they said.
A twice suspended public inquiry into proposed plans for a gold mine in Co Tyrone has cost almost half a million pounds, it can be revealed.
Commissioner McParland told the hearing on January 15 it was “deeply regrettable that members of the PAC have been put in this position by the inaction of government departments particularly the planning department of the DFI to follow their own legislative procedures”.
