Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 February 2022
346. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total number of planning applications processed in 2021 in each local authority; and the number of qualified planner whole-time equivalents available to process such applications in tabular form. [4789/22]
View answerPlanning statistics are compiled by each planning authority on an annual basis for collation and publication on my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/service/9e4ee-get-planning-statistics/.
The data collected relates to the total number of applications and decisions for all developments that require planning permission, broken down by year and planning authority. However, the 2021 data has not yet been submitted to my Department for compilation and should for the moment be sought directly from planning authorities. It is expected that the 2021 data will be published by my Department in Q2 2022.
With regard to staffing of planning authorities, under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.
My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.
However, granular data, in terms of the number of planners available to process and determine planning applications in each local authority, is not specifically collected and consequently is not available in my Department. It should be available from individual local authorities.
