An Bord Pleanála’s Performance Delivery Agreement (PDA) with my Department documents the agreed level of service between the parties to facilitate improved effectiveness and efficiency of relevant public services, setting out the Board’s key targets and defining the output and outcome indicators on which its performance should be measured. The 2021 PDA reflected an overall target to determine 60% - 75% of all normal planning appeal cases within the 18 week statutory objective period. It is my understanding that, as of end December 2021, 58% of all such cases disposed were concluded within this 18 week target.
Section 126 of the Act provides that it shall be the duty and objective of the Board to decide appeals as expeditiously as may be and, for that purpose, to take all such steps as are open to it to ensure that, insofar as is practicable, there are no avoidable delays at any stage in the determination of appeals.
It is important to acknowledge that a certain percentage of cases, due to particular circumstance such as complexity requests for further information from applicants for permission or further submissions from other participants including third parties, will not meet the 18 week target. It should also be recognised that while An Bord Pleanála continued to deliver its service throughout the Covid emergency, there was an unavoidable impact on its case processing timelines. Also, the number of cases received by the Board in 2021 was up 18% on 2020.
It should be noted that arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. This provides a speedy, efficient and cost effective system to address queries directly to the relevant bodies. The contact email address for An Bord Pleanála in this regard is Oireachtasqueries@pleanala.ie. In order to assist the Deputy, my Department requested and received the information sought by the Deputy from An Bord Pleanála, which is set out in the table below.
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Appeals
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Number
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Number of normal planning appeals on hand to date for more than four months
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532 (as at 19/04/2022)
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Number of normal planning appeals on hand for longer than one year
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61 (as at 19/04/2022)
(note that there may be particular circumstances with certain cases e.g. legal proceedings)
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Longest length a current normal planning appeal is on hand
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125.7 weeks (as at 19/04/2022)
(note that this case has been the subject of legal proceedings)
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My Department approved all 24 additional posts requested by the Board in their Workforce Plan 2021-2022 and will continue to liaise closely with the Board to ensure that it has appropriate resources to improve its compliance rate, in line with its annual PDA targets.
