Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 26 Jan 2000

Vol. 513 No. 1

Written Answers. - Planning Staff.

Ruairí Quinn

Question:

95 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the number of vacancies for professional planners and other planning staff in local authorities and An Bord Pleanála; the action, if any, he will take to address the shortage of professional planners and planning staff at all levels of the public planning process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1593/00]

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey):

My Department does not compile information on the number of vacancies in planning, or any other type of posts in the local authorities. Therefore, I cannot supply the information requested by the Deputy in this regard. With regard to An Bord Pleanála, there are currently vacancies in 1.5 posts at planning inspector level.

The most recent survey of local authority planning departments, carried out by my Department, showed that the overall level of serving staff, both administrative and professional, in county councils and county borough corporations, had increased to 894.5 in September 1999 compared with 753 in May 1999 and 660.5 in June 1998. The September 1999 figure comprised 391 professional staff – planners and others – and 503.5 administrative staff.

It is the responsibility of the management of each local authority to ensure that they have adequate staffing resources to discharge their statutory planning functions. In April 1998, my Department wrote to planning authorities asking that they avail of the opportunity presented by planning fee increases, which were effected by new regulations at that time, to consider the possibility of employing more professional planners. My Department again wrote to local authority managers in July 1998 asking that they consider the adequacy of their professional-technical and administrative-clerical staffing in order to ensure that the planning system does not cause bottlenecks in meeting demand and delivers the best possible service to the customer. The Department has approved almost all such requests for additional professional planners.

Details of additional posts in local authority planning departments sanctioned by my Department during 1999 are set out in the table which will be included in the Official Report.

Ireland's only planning school is in the National University of Ireland, Dublin – University College Dublin and I have written to the president of that college indicating that the expansion of the economy has made for a greatly increased workload on the planning system and there is evidence of a shortfall in the number of professional planners to meet present requirements. I further outlined in that letter that the Planning and Development Bill and future EU requirements will confer further functions and place new obligations on planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála. I indicated that all these developments will call for increased professional planning resources in this country and any increase in the number of planners qualifying would be welcomed.

Additional Permanent Posts in Local Authority Planning Departments approved by the Department of the Environment and Local Government during 1999:

LocalAuthority	QualifiedPlanners	OtherProfessional	Adminis-trative
Carlow	2	1 (technician)	1
Cavan	2		2
Clare	2	1 (engineer)1 (technician)
Cork	9	1 (engineer)
Donegal	5
Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown
Fingal	1	2 (technicians)
Galway	6	1 (technician)	1
Kerry	1
Kildare	5	3 (engineers)	12
Kilkenny		1 (technician)	2
Laois	3
Leitrim
Limerick
Longford
Louth	5
Mayo	5	1 (technician)
Meath	4
Monaghan		1 (technician)	2.5
Offaly
Roscommon
Sligo	1
South Dublin
Tipperary(NR)	3	1 (technician)
Tipperary(SR)	2
Waterford
Westmeath	2
Wexford
Wicklow	3		3
Cork Corp.
Dublin Corp.	9
Galway Corp.
Limerick Corp.	1
Waterford Corp.	1
Total	71	14	23.5