The Meath County Manager has acknowledged that a report into a planning case which has cost the council over €4m makes "very difficult reading for all of us."

This afternoon, the local authority discussed the independent report prepared in the wake of a debacle over planning for a development in Ashbourne.

Land was sold by the council to a company, Darlington Properties, on the understanding a roadway would be built.

But the council had already sold the land on which that road would go years earlier so the road could never have been built.

In the subsequent High Court case, the judge described the council's approach as “bungling and ineptitude of the highest order” and awarded the company over €4m.

The independent examination of the local authority was carried out following the case and it highlighted major problems in the planning department and with senior management oversight in the council.

This afternoon, County Manager Tom Dowling said the report made 25 recommendations and work had already commenced on many of them and the others would be implemented immediately.

However, he rejected the proposal in the report that he assume direct responsibility for planning, saying it would be "totally unreal" for him to do this in a county the size of Meath.

"I am very conscious that in implementing any change we must ensure that we strike the correct balance between appropriate levels of control and governance and the requirement to deliver a good and efficient service,” he told councillors at a meeting this afternoon.

“We don't want to end up with a system that is so rigid, so tied up with red tape and so over controlled that paralysis sets in.

“I want an empowered planning department where people are not afraid to engage or to make a decision for fear of making a mistake."

Sinn Féin Councillor Joe Reilly said the report highlights the need for a total overhaul of the council.