Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 May 2023
367. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in respect of the backlog of planning permissions decisions at An Bord Pleanála, the priority, if any, being given to local authority Part 10 applications for housing, which come under strategic infrastructure development applications that includes major transport and other infrastructure projects. [21716/23]
View answerAn Bord Pleanála (the Board) is the national independent statutory body with responsibility for the determination of planning appeals and direct applications for strategic infrastructure and other developments under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, and certain other Acts.
Section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, 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, may not meet the 18 week target.
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 be of assistance to the Deputy, my Department sought the information requested from the Board, who advised that; as of the 8 May 2023 there are two local authority part 10 housing applications on hand with An Bord Pleanála. The Board will be determining these cases in the context of the overall prioritisation of all types of case before them, which may not necessarily be in chronological order, in order to manage its caseload and clear the backlog in the most effective way possible.
Under section 30 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, as amended, as Minister I am specifically precluded from exercising power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned.
