Planning body revamp aims to streamline changes

An Bord Pleanala is to be restructured in a bid to deliver major infrastructure decisions more quickly, the Government said today.

Environment Minister Dick Roche announced the move in conjunction with an amendment to the 2000 Planning Act to bring about greater efficiency in the consent process for infrastructure projects.

Mr Roche said the revamp of the planning authority would ensure robust analysis of proposals and greater certainty on the time frame for delivering decisions.

He claimed the objective was to contribute to the delivery of high-quality infrastructure which will improve people’s quality of life while respecting the environment.

The Government has also decided to make parallel changes to procedures for judicial review of decisions on infrastructure, to ensure that protracted delays cannot happen in the courts.

“Ireland badly needs new and improved infrastructure across a number of areas, to tackle bottlenecks in our economy and to improve every citizen’s quality of life,” Mr Roche said.

“Every delay in taking a decision or arising from excessive delay in dealing with a court challenge to a decision adds to the costs of providing that infrastructure.

“Those delays rarely mean that the decision taken is a better one, just that the construction is more expensive because time has passed.

“We need to have a system that delivers the right infrastructure in the right place with the minimum of impact on the community and the environment.”

Mr Roche also announced a number of complementary proposals including the establishment of a new, permanent Strategic Infrastructure Division within an Bord Pleanala which will handle decisions on all major infrastructure projects.

The board’s role will be extended to include decisions on railways, gas pipelines and electricity transmission lines.

They currently oversee planning decisions for major roads/motorways and other big projects proposed by local authorities.

Major transport, environmental and energy projects proposed by the private sector that are of strategic importance will be referred directly to the board by the local manager and will not need local planning permission.

The board will take on a more proactive role at the early stages of planning such projects in ensuring that the Environmental Impact Statements deal with all relevant matters so that mitigation measures can be addressed and in identifying the key planning issues.

The minister said people were entitled to expect that any impacts of proposed infrastructure on the local environment or community would be robustly assessed, while at the same time there was an expectation that major infrastructure projects must be decided on speedily.

“My proposals are designed to ensure the correct balance between individual rights and the national interest,” he said.

“We will also be in full compliance with Ireland’s EU and international legal obligations in relation to consideration of environmental and heritage impacts and consultation with the public.”

Drafting of the Planning Bill needed to underpin these changes will begin immediately and the legislation is due to be published in a few months.

The minister noted that a lot of the most protracted delays to decisions on infrastructure in recent years have been due to legal challenges.

He said the Government had therefore decided that, as well as changes to the planning system, it needed to tackle delays in the courts.

“My colleague Minister McDowell will be examining ways in consultation with the courts to ensure that cases get heard earlier and that court decisions are made quickly,” he said.

“This is not about trying to stop genuine legal challenges. What we need are mechanisms to ensure that cases are heard and decided as soon as possible so that everybody knows whether the infrastructure project can proceed or not.”