State planning board spent €8.2m on legal challenges to strategic housing in 2020

An Bord Pleanála paid out €8.2m in fees last year, up from €3.5m in 2019. It received €18.6m in exchequer funding in 2019.

The more than doubling of legal fees incurred by An Bord Pleanála in 2020 to €8.2m on foot of a string of court challenges taken against Strategic Housing Developments has been described as “scandalous”.

Such applications are generally for large-scale housing builds, which are ‘fast-tracked’ to An Bord Pleanála in order to skip the local authority planning stage so a decision can be arrived at inside 16 weeks.