I see the serial objector has an article in @IrishTimes with the title “Proper planning and sustainable development have been effectively abandoned” where he complains about large resi infill projects and anything of height or density proposed in Dublin at the minute. 1/

I’d usually roll my eyes and ignore. Generational or professional differences of opinion perhaps. But I can’t in good conscious ignore where Frank name-checks senior planning officials in Ireland 2/

Firstly, this is incredibly tacky and screams of tinfoil hat paranoia. Secondly, he suggests that if you’ve worked in private practice you’re somehow unfit to work in the public sector. Heaven forbid someone should have a career history 3/

The insinuation that you’re unfit to assess planning applications because you’ve worked on the other side of the application fence is frankly embarrassing. The Irish planning system has been crying out for fresh blood for years. 4/

Gone are the days where you graduate from college and enter the local authority and retire in there, unsullied by the private practice and talks of viability, profits and margins (heaven forbid!) 5/

The reality is anyone of my generation of planners either got a job in private practice, sometimes through job bridge, or migrated. Local authorities simply weren’t hiring. Private sector planners moving to the public sector is only a good thing as far as I am concerned. 6/

Namechecking senior staff and their work history should never have been published by @IrishTimes to support some sort of conspiratorial notion that everyone’s out to get ACAs and low rise Dublin. 7/

Height is being encouraged in certain areas quite simply because it IS sustainable development. Inner city land is a finite resource. This is why the Dept issued the Height Guidelines to supersede development plans. Tinfoil hat off, it’s embarrassing.