Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 May 2022
211. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the options that are available to a community in which an unauthorised development is being constructed in spite of the first planning enforcement letter having been issued; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25735/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder section 30 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), I - in my role as Minister with responsibility for planning - am specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case, including an enforcement issue, with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned.
Under planning legislation, enforcement of planning control is a matter for the planning authority concerned which can take action if a development does not have the required permission or where the terms of a permission have not been respected. Planning authorities have substantial enforcement powers under the Act in this regard. Under section 154 of the Act, a planning authority may issue an enforcement notice in connection with an unauthorised development, requiring such steps as the authority considers necessary to be taken within a specified period. If an enforcement notice is not complied with, the planning authority may itself take the specified steps and recover the expense incurred in doing so. A planning authority may also seek a court order under section 160 of the Act requiring any particular action to be done or not to be done. Complaints regarding planning enforcement should be made to the Director of Planning Services at the local authority concerned.
Section 160 of the Act further provides that a planning authority or any person, which would include community groups and members of the public without any interest in the land in question, may seek an injunction in the Courts in relation to unauthorised development requiring that the unauthorised development is not carried out or continued, or that it is carried out in conformity with a planning permission granted under the Act.
