New f igures show very long delays in over 500 appeals to Bord Pleanála
ALMOST 500 planning appeals before the crisis-hit An Bord Pleanála are more than six months overdue – with most now over 18 months late, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The scale of the planning blockages exacerbating the housing crisis are laid bare in new figures confirmed by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien in response to parliamentary queries from Independent TD Michael McNamara.
In his response, Minister O’Brien confirmed 255 planning
‘We need to know these facts’
appeals lodged last year that have yet to be decided upon. A further 235 decisions appealed this year are also currently overdue.
Mr McNamara said the figures ‘confirm the utter urgency’ to reform the scandal-hit national planning authority.
The Clare TD said the ‘dysfunctional’ planning body and the huge appeals backlog threatens to undermine the State’s €165b infrastructure plan and attempts to address the unprecedented housing shortage.
He also criticised some of Minister O’Brien’s planned reforms of the planning process, including an 18-week fasttrack process to deal with planning applications.
He told the MoS: ‘Some ministers appear to believe that the capacity to challenge decisions should be reduced, but the reality is that if decisions are robust they won’t be challenged.’
Mr McNamara also criticised what he described as ‘the failure of the minister’ to respond to his queries about how the planning delays have impacted on the economy.
‘We need to know these facts,’ he added.
Industry sources said the huge planning appeals backlog is creating a ‘big problem’ for the Government’s Housing for All targets, which aims to build 33,000 new homes every year between now and 2030.
One source told the MoS: ‘The process of dealing with planning appeals is at stalemate now. As a result of the review with SHD (Strategic Housing Development), you have to have three members to adjudicate, hence only one committee. So that’s a big problem for delivering housing.’
Despite growing concerns over the chaotic state of An Bord Pleanála, Minister O’Brien insists the Government is still on track to institute comprehensive reforms by the close of the year.
In response to queries from the MoS, a spokesperson for Minister O’Brien said a major review into the planning process, led by the Attorney General Paul Gallagher, ‘is progressing in line with timelines set out by the Office of the Attorney General. The Bill will be brought to Government before the end of the year’.
One minister noted of the tight schedule: ‘Critically, this is being led by the Attorney General. It is Gallagher’s last big play at leaving a legacy post banking crisis, so I’d say he will make it arrive on schedule.’
Speaking about their reform plans, a spokesperson for Minister O’Brien admitted ‘the priority right now is to underpin confidence in the capacity of the board [of An Bord Pleanála] to make planning decisions in a fair manner, supporting the values of independence, impartiality and integrity’.
But another minister told the MoS: ‘The state has an unprecedented €165b to deliver in public infrastructure over the next decade and it needs to be assured that any legal challenges to the planning code are adjudicated on efficiently and not held up for years on end which causes uncertainty.’