Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 25 Oct 2000

Vol. 524 No. 6

Written Answers. - Local Authority Planners.

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 251 and 252 together.

The office of county or city planner only exists in Dublin and Cork cities and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin counties. I understand that proposals currently under discussion in Cork city and the Dublin counties involve the suppression of the city and county planning officer posts in favour of the creation of new senior management posts of director of services with a wider management remit and I support this approach.

The new structures proposed will not result in any diminution in the level or quality of the planning advice available to local authorities. Under the new arrangements, the planning function will be headed up by a director of service at management level who will oversee both the technical and administrative staff. The new structures will have adequate numbers of senior planning staff to deal with technical matters.

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey)

The number of planning applications made to each county and county borough area for each of the years 1995-1999 as published in my Department's annual Planning Statistics publication are set out in a table attached. The data for each county council includes the data for the urban district councils and borough corporations.

With regard to staffing, my Department's Planning Statistics publication includes figures for the number of technical, i.e. planners, technicians, etc., and administrative staff in planning authorities by county and city area and the data for the years 1995-1999 is set out in a table attached. The table shows that overall staffing levels increased from 1,033 in 1995 to 1,309 in 1999.

As outlined in the reply to Question No. 346 of 17 October 2000, a number of measures have been taken to ensure an increase in the availability of professional planners in the planning system. My Department has written to planning authorities on a number of occasions asking that they consider the adequacy of their professional-technical and administrative/clerical staffing in order to ensure that the planning system does not cause bottlenecks in meeting demand and delivers the best possible service to the customer. While my Department has approved requests from planning authorities for sanction for additional professional planner posts, I am aware that some authorities have experienced difficulties in recruiting to fill these additional posts. However, an additional 64 planners were employed by the local authorities between March and July of this year.

In June of this year, I made the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 2000, which increased the size of exempted domestic extensions from 23 square metres to 40 square metres. This was designed to remove about 30% of planning applications for such extensions from the planning system in major urban areas, to allow planners to concentrate on forward planning issues.

I have been in contact with my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, and the third level education sector with a view to identifying ways of producing more planners through the education system. As a result, from September of this year new and expanded courses in University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street will treble the output of graduate planners in two years time to approximately 75 planners graduating per annum. Further additional courses are also under consideration.

In the interim, to meet the short-term demand, the possibility of employing planners from abroad on fixed term contracts is being examined. My Department will also pursue with the local authorities and the Local Government computer services board the use of information technology to streamline planning procedures.

With regard to financial resources, it is a matter for each planning authority to determine its own expenditure requirements in the context of its annual estimates. Expenditure arising in relation to planning would be dealt with by local authorities in this estimates context. Such expenditure is funded from a variety of sources including the local government fund and other State grants, rates and fees and charges. Planning fees were increased in 1998 and the Department wrote to planning authorities at that time asking them to consider the possibility of employing more professional planners. For future provisions from the local government fund, regard will be had to the resource implications of the Planning and Development Act, 2000.

Table 1

Number of Planning Applications by County and City Area, 1995 1999

Area	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
County Councils
Carlow	559	623	637	810	985
Cavan	823	903	991	1,293	1,696
Clare	1,483	1,831	1,957	2,342	2,842
Cork	4,828	5,227	5,572	6,227	7,717
Donegal	2,222	2,520	2,831	3,652	5,520
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	1,375	1,683	1,851	2,176	2,335
Fingal	1,376	1,633	1,815	2,088	2,520
Galway	2,615	3,160	3,833	4,886	5,588
Kerry	2,478	2,811	3,095	3,638	4,117
Kildare	1,589	1,882	2,060	2,574	2,618
Kilkenny	1,205	1,277	1,355	1,531	2,079
Laois	730	814	812	1,153	1,504
Leitrim	402	427	575	729	922
Limerick	1,524	1,794	1,899	2,133	2,639
Longford	524	524	498	557	813
Louth	1,406	1,543	1,592	1,897	2,395
Mayo	1,981	2,409	2,679	3,377	3,618
Meath	1,531	1,654	2,021	2,442	2,767
Monaghan	877	925	1,040	1,083	1,315
Offaly	779	864	979	1,195	1,678
Roscommon	824	885	986	1,258	1,479
Sligo	882	942	946	1,172	1,309
South Dublin	1,118	1,249	1,198	1,651	1,758
Tipperary NR	879	900	1,028	1,216	1,609
Tipperary SR	1,028	1,070	1,146	1,331	1,707
Waterford	845	898	1,053	1,302	1,496
Westmeath	880	1,135	1,339	1,532	1,895
Wexford	2,006	2,207	2,451	3,146	4,097
Wicklow	1,479	1,541	1,864	2,156	2,295
Sub-total	40,253	45,331	50,106	60,547	73,313
County Borough Corporations
Cork	803	796	891	982	1,055
Dublin	2,698	2,945	3,248	3,782	4,064
Galway	761	851	855	912	864
Limerick	394	408	431	463	452
Waterford	352	401	401	389	513
Sub-total	5,008	5,401	5,826	6,528	6,948
Total	45,261	50,732	55,929	67,075	80,261

Note: Planning applications submitted to Urban District Councils and Borough Corporations are included in the figures for the relevant County.

Table 2

Number of Planning Staff (Administrative and Technical) by County and City Area, 1994 to 1999.

Area	1995			1996			1997			1998			1999
County Councils	Tech	Admin	Tech	Admin	Tech	Admin	Tech	Admin	Tech	Admin
Carlow	9	8	8	7	10	6	9	4	12	7
Cavan	17	7	17	7	17	8	18	9	19	11
Clare	20	12	20	19	13	15	16	19	17	21
Cork	26	42	28	50	32	63	30	53	67	60
Donegal	12	31	27	16	32	18	32	22	21	41
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	27	39	28	35	28	38	25	38	22	35
Fingal	25	33	23	33	25	36	24	37	39	43
Galway	21	12	23	12	23	12	25	20	30	22
Kerry	15	12	13	12	14	14	16	15	19	19
Kildare	29	13	29	13	30	14	30	15	30	15
Kilkenny	15	9	14	10	14	11	2	3	16	11
Laois	3	4	3	4	4	5	4	6	5	7
Leitrim	7	3	8	4	8	4	8	4	11	5
Limerick	10	7	10	7	10	7	13	10	20	14
Longford	9	4	9	4	9	4	10	4	11	7
Louth	13	11	12	12	15	13	20	13	19	15
Mayo	11	11	11	12	13	12	9	10	15	16
Meath	7	17	7	15	10	17	10	17	8	19
Area	1995			1996			1997			1998			1999
Monaghan	15	8	14	10	15	10	16	9	10	11
Offaly	4	5	5	6	6	6	8	8	10	10
Roscommon	3	4	4	5	4	6	3	6	4	5
Sligo	15	7	5	15	15	9	16	9	13	7
South Dublin	32	48	34	37	31	37	29	32	29	36
Tipperary NR	3	10	4	16	16	18	18	9	7	12
Tipperary SR	10	14	10	12	11	11	13	16	12	19
Waterford	6	6	6	7	6	7	7	7	9	8
Westmeath	18	9	17	9	18	9	18	10	23	14
Wexford	19	13	19	12	9	20	15	11	17	17
Wicklow	13	17	18	31	25	21	27	23	27	21
Sub-total	414	416	426	432	463	451	470	438	562	528
County Borough Corporations
Cork	20	10	20	11	22	11	21	11	18	16
Dublin	85	46	73	56	69	54	72	55	72	63
Galway	8	6	0	0	7	8	9	9	10	9
Limerick	12	7	12	8	12	8	12	8	13	8
Waterford	6	3	6	3	6	3	5	4	6	4
Sub-total	131	72	111	78	116	84	119	87	119	100
Total (by category)	545	488	537	510	579	535	589	525	681	628
Total (all staff)	1,033			1,047			1,114			1,114			1,309

Note: Planning Staff in Urban District Councils and Borough Corporations are included in the figures for the relevant County. Figures include part-time staff and staff engaged in planning work as part of their overall duties.