The planning policy of six local authorities is to be reviewed by a team of independent experts following complaints sent to the Minister for the Environment about alleged irregularities.
The councils facing a review are Dublin City, Galway County, Cork City, Cork County, Carlow and Meath.
The relevant managers will be given four weeks to respond to specified issues, after which their replies will be assessed by the expert group, which can make far-reaching recommendations.
Minister John Gormley says that individual planning decisions will not be examined but rather the processes and systems that enabled such decisions to be made.
However, this probe is a significant development as the local authorities face accusations that they ignored best planning practice, or their development plans, or both.
The six councils are being peer-reviewed and the currently unidentified team of experts can call for a full investigation of planning policy.
The review flows from Section 255 of the Planning Act, which is the same provision that Minister Gormley recently used on Donegal County Council, and its response will also be examined by the expert team.
The Cork City Manager Joe Gavin has said that he is satisfied that planning policy and the processing of planning applications for Cork City comply completely with the law.
The managers of the six local authorities will be given four weeks to respond to the allegations.
The Department of the Environment has insisted that efforts were made to contact Mr Gavin yesterday.
Mr Gavin told RTÉ News he only heard of the investigation on RTE's Morning Ireland this morning.
A spokesman for Minister Gormley said 'every effort' was made to contact all local authority managers involved yesterday.
It said an e-mail was sent directly to Mr Gavin and messages were left with his office.
A statement from Dublin City Council said it has not as yet received correspondence from the Minister setting out the terms of reference of his review.
'However, we will co-operate fully with the Minister's request when received,' the statement said.
