I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 37 together.
There has been a major increase in the number of planning appeals coming before An Bord Pleanála in recent years. The board received 5,219 and disposed of 4,998 cases in 2001. This compares with 3,424 cases received and 3,237 cases disposed of in 1996. The board accords priority to cases involving development with significant employment generating potential.
My Department and the board have been addressing on an ongoing basis a range of measures to enable the board to process appeals more expeditiously and to discharge the new functions transferred to the board by the Planning and Development Act, 2000. As a result, significant additional staffing and financial resources have been allocated to the board. In summary, during my term as Minister, board membership has been doubled from six to 12, the authorised staff complement stands at 138, an increase of over 50, 79 planners have been engaged – mostly from abroad – on a fee per case basis to provide reports on the smaller types of appeals, seven consultancy firms have been engaged to provide reports on the larger cases and a panel of consultants has been set up to hold hearings in relation to motorway schemes, CPOs and other procedures devolved to the board under the Planning and Development Act, 2000. I anticipate that all of these measures will enable the board to eliminate the backlog of appeal cases by mid 2002.
I have also been concerned to ensure adequate staffing levels for local authority planning departments, who have already been improving their productivity to deal with a large increase in applications for planning permission. I have approved numerous requests from planning authorities for sanction for additional planning posts, both professional planners and administrative staff. Staffing of local authority planning departments has almost doubled over the last four years from 660 in June 1998 to 1,284 in October 2001, involving significant recruitment of planners from abroad. I am confident therefore that the resources available to the planning system are increasing and will continue to increase over the next number of years as a significantly expanded number of graduate planners becomes available from the educational institutions.