Fianna Fáil councillor apologises for using racist term to describe Planning Regulator in heated debate on one-off housing

A Fianna Fáil councillor has apologised for using a racist term to describe the Planning Regulator.

Wexford County Councillor Pip Breen described Planning Regulator Niall Cussen as a “n***** in the woodpile” during a heated council debate about the county development plan.

Mr Breen withdrew the remark soon after he made it during an online council meeting on Monday.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the councillor said he was “mortified” after he made the remake and said he would like to “sincerely apologise” to Mr Cussen.

“I withdrew it immediately because I knew I had overstepped the mark,” Mr Breen said. “It got very emotive and it took me nearly an hour to get in and I lost the run of myself,” he added.

Mr Breen said the term is a “from the past” and insisted he “would be in no way racist or anything like that”.

“I wish the ground had opened up and swallowed me once I said it but I couldn’t take it back. I’m of an age when I can remember that was a common phrase,” he added.

Mr Breen’s comments come against a background of anger among Wexford County councillors over objections to their country development plan by the Planning Regulator.

Mr Cussen’s office is seeking significant reduction of one-off rural houses in the county and calling for more focus on high-density residential housing in towns and villages. Wexford councillors argue the infrastructure is not in place to plan for additional residential construction in built-up areas.

Speaking in the Dáil two weeks ago, Wexford TD Verona Murphy described the Planning Regulator’s policies on housing as “Marxist and Stalinist”.

Ms Murphy accused Mr Cussen of instigating a “power grab” before calling for him to be removed from his office.

She said her criticisms stemmed from the Regulator’s objections to the Wexford county development plan.

Ms Murphy said Mr Cussen had the “temerity” to write to Wexford County Council calling for densities of not fewer than 20 or 30 dwellings per hectare which would prevent the council from allowing people to build-one off houses in rural areas.

Ms Murphy said the “tone and tenor” of the Regulator’s letter is the “equivalent of a missive one might expect to receive from the politburo”.

“The planning regulator in his letter to Wexford County Council sets out a plethora of recommendations that will shut down rural Wexford and ghettoise our towns,” she told the Dáil

“We need only look to the early 20th century and what happened in eastern Europe at the hands of the ideologues such as Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin,” she added.

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) said Ms Murphey’s comments were “misleading and inaccurate”.

“Deputy Murphy’s claim that the work of the Office is ideologically driven is factually incorrect,” a spokesman said. “The OPR is obliged by legislation to point out to local authorities any policies in their draft development plans which need to be refined or strengthened to give effect to the planning policies of Government,” the regulator added.

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