Alan Kelly
Ceist:393. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his plans to ensure An Bord Pleanála meets its timelines for making planning decisions. [14913/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 14 July 2020
Ceisteanna (393)
Freagraí scríofa
An Bord Pleanála 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.
Under section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, An Bord Pleanála has a statutory objective to determine normal planning appeals within 18 weeks of receipt of the appeal. Furthermore, under Section 37J of the Act, the Board has an objective to make decisions on applications for strategic infrastructure development within a period of 18 weeks, beginning on the last day for making submissions or observations.
Where the Board does not consider it possible or appropriate to reach a decision within 18 weeks (e.g. because of the particular complexities of a case or the requirement to hold an oral hearing), it will inform the parties of the reasons for this, and will indicate when it intends to make its decision.
The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 provided for streamlined arrangements to enable planning applications for strategic housing developments, of 100 housing units or more or student accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more, to be made directly to the Board for determination within a period of 16 weeks or 24 weeks where an oral hearing is held.
The main volume of the Board’s workload continues to be normal planning appeal cases – these cases made up 71% of the case intake in 2019. 69% of such cases were disposed within the statutory objective period (SOP) of 18 weeks in 2019, compared to 39% in 2018. The compliance rate for these cases for 2020 was 76% (to end June 2020), which is slightly above the compliance target set out in the Performance Delivery Agreement between An Bord Pleanála and the Department.
In relation to strategic housing applications (SHD), despite a tripling of valid SHD applications from 39 in 2018 to 119 in 2019, all decisions made in 2019 and to date in 2020 have been made within the statutory objective period of 16 weeks (or 24 weeks in cases where oral hearings have been held).
Compliance with the relevant statutory objective period for making decisions on Strategic Infrastructure Development cases (SID) was at 31% in 2019 which reflects the level of complexity and the fact that additional time is often required to conduct hearings and to consider further information.
My Department has worked closely with the Board over the last year or so on a range of measures aimed at increasing its compliance rate with the statutory objective period, including the appointment of Board members and the provision of additional staff resources. I am satisfied with the impact these measures appear to be having and as such, I have no plans currently to introduce new legislation aimed specifically at increasing the Board’s compliance rate.
My Department will continue to liaise closely with the Board to ensure that it has appropriate resources to maintain and improve its compliance rate, in line with its Performance Delivery Agreement targets.