'Planning is everyone’s whipping boy and scapegoat for issues around housing and infrastructure'

Irish Planning Institute's annual conference in Galway calls for evidence-led solutions to State's capacity challenges

Irish Planning Institute president Gavin Lawlor said evidence-led solutions were needed to help solve the capacity challenges facing the state. Picture: Fennell Photography

The planning system has become the “scapegoat” for every issue related to housing, infrastructure and other areas of the economy, the Irish Planning Institute's annual conference in Galway has heard.

In his address to 400 delegates attending the annual conference of the Irish Planning Institute, president Gavin Lawlor said evidence-led solutions were needed to help solve the capacity challenges facing the state. Mr Lawlor said more KPIs are needed for successful planning, going beyond the number of housing units delivered each year.

“We need to stand up for the planning profession and challenge why planning is everyone’s whipping boy and scapegoat for issues around housing, infrastructure and everything else,” Mr Lawlor said.

“We regularly hear from the political system – particularly at national level – that planning, and by extension planners, is a problem, and the source of all our housing and infrastructure issues. I don’t believe that. I believe that planners solve problems and do not create them."

Mr Lawlor said that while the revised National Planning Framework adopted by Government this week was very welcome, it should have been reviewed more quickly. Adding that the implementation of the policies within the revised Framework, such as renewable energy and housing targets, will still take a considerable amount of time to be reflected in implementable regional and local policy.

The Planning Institute president also warned the consistent negative commentary against the planning system was amplifying a staffing crisis within the sector, where less and less people are choosing planning as a career.

The Irish Planning Institute is the all-island professional body representing professional planners engaged in physical, spatial and environmental planning in Ireland and Irish planners practicing overseas. The institute represents over 1,000 planners across the public and private sector, including planners working in local authorities, academia, An Bord Pleanála, central government, regional assemblies, private practice consultancies, property developers and semi-state organisations.