My Department has not been contacted by the European Commission in connection with any complaints that may have been submitted to the Commission regarding the planning matter referred to.
My role as Minister in relation to the planning system is mainly to provide and update the legislative and policy guidance framework. The legislative framework comprises the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended and the associated Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended.
With regard to policy guidance, my Department has issued a large number of planning guidelines (available on the Department’s website www.housing.gov.ie) under section 28 of the 2000 Act which planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála are obliged to have regard to in the exercise of their planning functions. The day-to-day operation of the planning system is, however, a matter for each individual planning authority.
Under planning legislation, enforcement of planning control is a matter for the planning authority concerned which can take action if a development does not have the required permission or where the terms of a permission have not been respected. Planning authorities have substantial enforcement powers under the 2000 Act in this regard. Under section 154 of the Act, a planning authority may issue an enforcement notice in connection with an unauthorised development, requiring such steps as the authority considers necessary to be taken within a specified period. If an enforcement notice is not complied with, the planning authority may itself take the specified steps and recover the expense incurred in doing so. A planning authority may also seek a court order under section 160 of the Act requiring any particular action to be done or not to be done. Complaints regarding planning enforcement should be made to the Director of Planning Services at the local authority concerned.
Section 160 of the Act further provides that any person may seek a court order in relation to unauthorised development; such action is not restricted to planning authorities.
Under section 30 of the Act I am specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case, including an enforcement issue, with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned.
