Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
560. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will request from An Bord Pleanála details of the current waiting times for decisions; if he will provide information on the average waiting time for decisions in 2022 and to date in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35641/23]
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.
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, my Department obtained the information requested from the Board who have provided the following information.
There has been a significant turnover of personnel at Board level in the organisation over recent months. This has resulted in restricted capacity at Board level and a consequent backlog of cases for determination. A number of board members have been appointed since the start of 2023 and the present complement is now 14 board members which provides the necessary capacity to begin to address current delays in determining cases over the next period of time.
There are different types of cases before the Board for determination. The Board will be applying different prioritisation to those cases and will therefore not deal with all cases in chronological order. The Board has decided that this is the best way to manage its backlog in the most effective way possible.
The Board is committed to work as expeditiously as possible to fully clear the backlog of cases over the coming period.
