Vol. 543 No. 2
140 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the steps being taken to address staff shortages in An Bord Pleanálá and planning departments in local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26683/01]
My Department has written to planning authorities on a number of occasions asking that they consider the adequacy of their staffing to ensure that the planning system does not cause bottlenecks in meeting demand and delivers the best possible service to the customer. In line with this concern, my Department has approved requests from planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála for sanction for additional planner professional planner posts. Notwithstanding this, I am aware that some authorities have experienced difficulties in recruiting to fill these additional posts.
A survey carried out by my Department of the larger local authority planning departments, that is, county councils and county borough corporations, carried out in July 2001 found that the overall number of serving staff, both administrative and professional, had increased to 1,210 which compared with a figure of 1,090 in January 2001, 1,066 in October 2000, 994 in July 2000 and 895 in September 1999. In relation to professional planners, the July 2001 survey identified the total number of serving professional planners at 346, an increase of some 40 since July 2000. Vacancies in this professional group nonetheless persist and must continue to be addressed.
In relation to An Bord Pleanála, in July 2000 I approved an increase of 29 additional staff – nine professional planners and 20 administrative staff. An additional four administrative staff were approved in July 2001, bringing the authorised staff complement, excluding board members, to 138, an increase of 53 since July 1997. The board recently contracted 47 additional planners to work on a fee per case basis – 44 of these are UK based. In addition, seven private planning consultancy firms have been engaged by the board to provide professional reports on 600 smaller type appeals cases. Again the majority of these firms are UK based. To expand capacity at board level, I have increased the number of board members from ten to 12 and I am in the process of filling these posts. All of these measures should enable the board to make major inroads over the coming months into the backlog that has built up.
A variety of measures have been taken to maximise the supply of professional planners to the planning authorities. At present, two third level institutions, University College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology at Bolton Street offer third level planning courses. From September 2000, an increase in the capacity of the existing planning course at UCD and the introduction of new courses at both UCD and Dublin Institute of Technology will result in a trebling of the output of graduates from these courses to 75 per annum from next summer.
