Rise in staff allows An Bord Pleanála to almost halve time to make planning decisions

However, An Bord Pleanala is still dealing with Strategic Housing Development (SHD) projects over three years after the process was completed.

A major increase in resources has led to a considerable reduction in the amount of time to process planning files in An Bord Pleanála over the last two years, according to figures released by the board. 

For the first time in recent years, the board has disposed of more appeals than files it opened, leading to a reduction in a backlog that is often cited as a major stumbling block in getting housing units built.

In mid-January, the board had 1,478 files on hand, down from 3,616 when the backlog was at its peak in May 2023. 

The timeline for decisions has nearly halved from 2023 to 2024, reducing from an average of 57 weeks to 36 weeks, according to provisional figures released. 

This has occurred against a backdrop of an increase in staff at the board from 202 at the end of 2022 to 290 at the end of last year. The number of inspectors over the same time period has increased from 66 to 100.

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However, the board is still dealing with Strategic Housing Development (SHD) projects over three years after the process was completed. SHDs, which cover housing developments in excess of 100 units, were introduced in 2017 to speed up the planning process. 

Under SHDs, the planning board was supposed to deal with an application within 16 weeks, but in 2024, it dealt with 34 cases despite the closing date for application falling over two years earlier.

Large Scale Residential developments, which replaced SHDs, were all processed within the statutory 16 weeks, according to the figures released. 

Planning appeals against wind farms have also been processed quicker with an average timeframe of 111 weeks in 2023, reducing to 33 weeks in 2024.

Housing analyst and architect Mel Reynolds says that he has been tracking improvements in the timeframe for appeal and in his estimation the average appeal now takes around six months, which is close to the four-month timeframe he estimates to have been in place prior to 2017 when a backlog began to build up.

“There was a combination of things that led to the major delays, including the SHD system and the number of board members dropped very low a few years ago,” he says. 

“Then there was the controversies over governance issues but the increase in staff has made a big difference. There were calls for additional staff as far back as 2015 but it’s only really being met now.” 

The new figures come in the same week that the chair of An Bord Pleanála, Peter Mullan, issued a statement about an investigation into the governance and malpractice issues that hit the board in 2022. Nobody is to be referred for disciplinary action following the report, which, according to Mr Mullan, will not be published on legal advice.