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THE GOVERNMENT HAS approved the new Planning and Development Bill, which it says will be the biggest overhaul of the planning system in a generation.
As well as introducing statutory timelines for planning decisions, the Bill will also introduce significant changes to An Bord Pleanála, with the organisation to be renamed An Coimisiún Pleanála.
The new timelines for planning applications will range from 18 weeks for appeals to 48 weeks for more complex issues and An Board Pleanála will be subject to fines if these timelines aren’t adhered to.
The most recent data for 2023 shows that up until the end of August, just 27% of planning appeals disposed of by An Board Pleanála were dealt with within 18 weeks.
The average time taken for these appeals was 47 weeks .
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien brought the updated Bill to Cabinet this morning with a number of key changes from the draft Bill that was released earlier this year.
First approved by Cabinet in late 2022, when the initial Bill was published earlier this year it attracted criticism due to the reforms relating to how judicial reviews are brought, with the Bill changing how residents associations can take cases against planning decisions.
At just under 700 pages, today’s Bill is 20% bigger than the draft released earlier this year.
In the new version of the Bill, some of these changes have been rolled back.
Residential associations will still allowed to take judicial reviews against planning decisions once they can show that a vote has taken place among their members (in line with a constitution), and that a two-thirds majority in favour of the judicial review has been secured.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today that the new law will “ensure that there are fewer vexatious [judicial] reviews”.
“Bear in mind what happens, you can have really important housing projects, really important transport projects, really important renewable energy projects. They can get held up for two and three years for a judicial review that either fails or is then withdrawn.
“What are the consequences of that? Who are the losers? We all are because we have to pay higher costs because projects get delayed and people who need housing for example, have to wait longer for that housing to be built,” the Taoiseach said today.
In addition to the overhaul of An Bord Pleanála, the statutory timelines, and the changes to how residents associations can take judicial reviews, the new law will also introduce an Environmental Legal Cost Scheme.
The Environmental Legal Cost Scheme aims to ensure that the cost to applicants of taking a judicial review of a planning decision is not prohibitively expensive.
As part of the scheme, there will be a scale of fees for all planning judicial reviews. Each party will bear its own cost however if an applicant wins it will be able to recover its costs in line with the scale of fees.
If an applicant does not win, it must bear its own costs but can apply to the Environmental Legal Costs Scheme for legal aid which will be means tested.
Commenting on the Bill today, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said the new legislation will touch “nearly every facet of government and of Irish life”.
The overhaul of An Bord Pleanála, comes in the wake of the controversy in the planning body last year, which resulted in Chairperson Dave Walsh opting to retire early in November.
The re-organisation will see the introduction of Planning Commissioners and a Governing Executive, as well as the separation of both decision-making and the corporate roles.
The Bill is expected to become law in 2024 and will be introduced on a phased basis.
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Will politicians still be able to apply for permission using false names??
Will this measure makes homes more affordable and rents more affordable? Didn’t think so.
More than 90% of planning applications are to the local authorities, and they generally dance to the beat to their own drum
“The legislation aims to cut planning appeals from 47 weeks to 18 weeks.” Perhaps what the new bill intends is to limit communities objections against developments not suited to the local environment and welfare of existing communities and straining existing transport and services to breaking point. Once these buildings are in place, will the developers care what happens in the community or will they bank the profits and move on to repeat the policy.
@Eileen Kelly: There is one of the problems in this country with planning,’we’whinge about nimbyist but ‘we’ whinge about builders and developers.It’s very hard to balance the two.I do believe that it needs to be changed.
@John Terry: The balance should lie with whether the development is sustainable in the community without adding to pressure on existing amenities and facilities including schools, healthcare, shopping , social spaces and transport. Most new developments are apartments with few facilities including parking for residents with the result local facilities are impacted and the quality of lives is diminished. I don’t see any new developments which bring additional facilities to the host community but I do see a lot of demand on already stretched services.
@Eileen Kelly: I’d say nothing would get done if the likes of you were in charge.All new developments impact existing areas but there needs to be the right balance…..I think one of the problems is that we all want a 3/4 bed house in the area we choose.
@John Terry: Something wrong with that aspiration? We work hard enough.
@John Terry: I think most people would be happier with nothing done than something done wrong. We can all see the problems that over development brings to areas, it can’t be all throw it up and worry about the problems later. Services need to meet development, development needs to suit it’s surroundings.
Planning me Aras…. apartment blocks getting pushed up everywhere.. no parking spaces, no amenities. The whole planning process skipped.
A Radical Change would be saying bye bye to FF, FG and G!
@Michael Mc Gee: And hello to the political wing of a terrorist organisation who have never ran a country and have proven themselves to be useless in the north where they are involved in government.
10 YEARS LATER:
“In the end rhe Planning and Development Bill 2024 has turned out to be the worst thing to happen to Irish housing in living memory”
No one honestly thinks FFG knows what they’re doing.
Our very own Derek Trotter is on the case. What could possibly go wrong?
The biggest with Abpleanala is that they have their own agenda. They don’t allow people to build on their own land even when they comply with a County Development Plan. It’s very difficult to qualify in the first instance for a rural house now. You must be of the rural area and have a provable need. You must be with a certain distance from your original home so anyone thinking that it’s easy to get should know it’s not. A bad neighbour can easily object to you and overturn a genuine because it’s know that ABP will not put through ANY rural home especially in a few county’s.
So, do I believe ABP will change, No not after the experience we’ve had over 15 years, I believe it’s Corrupt and will only want to save face. It’s ruined a man’s livelihood and so much more.The state has harmed that family and it’s not the only case.
One thing I’m amazed at in this country, there is never any importance placed on quality of life. Our once leafy semi rural South Dublin suburbs are fast being turned into multicultural overcrowded dumps and all the BS about sustainability was just that BS. I truly believe this government hates it’s own people, forcing their own young highly educated people abroad because they can’t afford to buy or rent a property near their own area but yet thousands of foreigners get houses and apartments free in these same areas and all funded by our so called national government. There’s a word for what they are doing.
I suppose with all the build to rent schemes being applied for in Dublin you can’t have the prospective new tenants hanging around abroad and not knowing when to book their flights to come here. Not even trying to hide what’s going, out of 27 new houses brought to the market in a provincial town recently, 21 were purchased by Indian people. Won’t take long I reckon.
Build it and it’s harder to take out. This suits the council management
They will do as they please
They haven’t a clue, it will be same antiquated system as before, Irish pastime objecting against every planning permission even when it had nothing to do with them, Irish get scared when tall buildings are suggested, motto keep Dublin backward
Who pays the fines ?
Let’s build a Burj Al Khalifa,but a few meters higher, in Dublin city centre , thousands of people we’d house in a structure like that
John Terry is a ficking tool
Different coloured envelopes ?
They need to get rid of keegan ..
Housing “Affordability” Crisis:
All the fiddling and adjustments by Government will have no real effect on “Affordability” until the Referendum on Housing is passed …
Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) report:-
“Soft Costs” have made housing unaffordable in Ireland.
Now at 51% as per the Report: VAT, Council levies, inflated land prices …
No VAT or other taxes on housing in other countries.
Because, as every Economist knows, housing is a basic need and fundamental requirement for life and so cannot be taxed as with food, water, medicine, healthcare, education … etc.
This is enshrined in the Constitutions of most other countries, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden …
The Irish Constitution is badly flawed in this respect and needs to be urgently fixed by a Referendum on Housing to upgrade it. Why is this Referendum not run with the 2 proposed next Spring? … “Far from Right” to prevent citizens from fixing this badly damaging aspect of the Irish Constitution.
No one can fix the Irish “Affordable” Housing crisis until this Referendum is passed – as clearly evidenced by the damming Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) report. ………… Not even Sinn Fein!
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