Homes on hold as not enough An Bord Pleanála board members to make decisions
The backlog means that applications for potentially tens of thousands of homes are on hold and that applications for thousands more homes will automatically become invalid.
There are 700-800 cases before An Bord Pleanála where its inspectors have signed off on reports but they cannot be finalised because there are not enough board members to do so.
The backlog means that applications for potentially tens of thousands of homes are on hold and that applications for thousands more homes will automatically become invalid.
“I have six operational members of An Bord Pleanála to take decisions,” its interim chair Oonagh Buckley told the Oireachtas Housing Committee. “Out of 15. That’s for all decisions. I just don’t have enough board members to make decisions.”
Ms Buckley, who was appointed in November, said that An Bord Pleanála has been “overwhelmed” with the level of decisions and judicial reviews taken in recent times, with the board sometimes conceding cases “on very basic grounds”.
A number of board members resigned last year in the wake of a number of controversies surrounding An Bord Pleanála. The reported that deputy chair Paul Hyde resigned last July following allegations that he had failed to declare conflicts of interest in a number of planning decisions.
Chairperson Dave Walsh announced in November he was to take early retirement after months of media and political pressure over revelations of malpractice and misgovernance in the organisation.
Meanwhile, the committee also heard from Office of the Planning Regulator CEO, Niall Cussen, who said Ireland is approaching an “epidemic” in terms of vacancy and dereliction of buildings in cities, towns and villages.
The Housing Committee is considering the Government’s proposed Planning and Development Bill 2022. At over 700 pages, the proposals would overhaul the planning system in Ireland and the Government said these are much needed to speed up the delivery of housing and infrastructure projects in Ireland.
It would also amend the requirements to take a judicial review opposing a development.
Addressing TDs and Senators, Ms Buckley said that significantly more resources are required for An Bord Pleanála — which will be renamed under the new legislation — to perform its duties with up to 800 cases in its backlog where its inspectors have already made a report on that specific planning application.
Last month, the reported that the significant delays at An Bord Pleanála which have been exacerbated by the recent scandals at the body would mean planning applications for thousands of homes would be automatically made invalid.
This is because most local authorities have ratified new city or county development plans in the meantime. As developers must adhere to whatever development plan is in place when a decision is made on their application, their applications now refer to plans that are no longer valid.
“We will have to refuse them,” Ms Buckley said. “We will have to get a planner to sit down and spend weeks or months to write a planning report. It will come to the board, and a board member will have to read through the paperwork and make a decision.
“Even though developers know, and we know, that actually because the law and the development plan has changed, an inevitable consequence of that is that there’ll be a refusal.”
Ms Buckley said An Bord Pleanála has sought more funding from the Department of Housing to recruit additional posts to help cope with the backlog. She said an additional 33 posts had been granted but that there was a “larger claim” for 59 posts and that “still more resources” would be required.
“That’s assuming people come join us, given recent events,” she said. “They might hold off for a bit. We’re going to have to ask patience of the public and of developers. We do have a backlog to work through.”
She said that expertise in certain cases had to be recruited from abroad, such as a noise expert from the UK recently being enlisted to work on a planning case involving Dublin Airport.
One particular situation that has arisen from recent scandals at An Bord Pleanála, where it was claimed that planning inspectors were asked to change their reports by members of the board.
Ms Buckley said: “In no way do I condone a planner being asked to change their opinion on a file.” She added that she came on board because she felt An Bord Pleanála is “too important to be allowed to fail” and an “eminently fixable situation”.
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