Vol. 528 No. 2
163 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the long delays in An Bord Pleanála in dealing with planning appeals; and the plans he has to speed up the decision making process. [29920/00]
The latest statistics, year to end October 2000, from An Bord Pleanála show that 48% of cases – 2,112 cases – were decided within the statutory four month objective as set down in the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1992. The average time taken to decide cases was 20.7 weeks. The delay in deciding cases has been decidedly affected by the ongoing increase in the intake of cases to date in 2000 the intake of cases is 14% higher than in 1999. In view of the pressures on the housing market, and the Government's policy objective to increase housing supply, the board now accords priority status to housing developments in excess of 30 units. In the year to end October 2000, the percentage of such cases decided within the statutory period is 62.2% with the average time taken to decide these case being 17.3 weeks. The board considers that by the end of this year priority housing appeals will exceed four months only in exceptional cases.
My Department and An Bord Pleanála have been discussing on an ongoing basis a range of measures to enable the board to process appeals more expeditiously in the context of the continued escalation in the number of appeals being received and the functions that will be transferred to the board in accordance with the provisions of the Planning and Development Act, 2000. Both the Department and the board regularly review the staffing position of An Bord Pleanála to ensure that all necessary resources are made available to the board. In this regard, in July of this year I approved an increase of 29 additional staff, nine professional planners and 20 administrative staff, which brings An Bord Pleanála's authorised staff complement to 134, excluding board members. I expect that these additional staff will assist the board in reducing the time it takes to decide appeals and my Department and the board will continue to keep the matter under review.
