Despite objections from environmentalists, councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a contentious new access road to Killarney National Park.

Kerry County Council has decided, by a narrow vote, to lift a ban on the erection of telecommunications masts within 1km of residential buildings, including homes, schools, and hospitals.

A junior minister has told Cork County Council it must drop a ban on building industrial-scale incinerators which the local authority has included in a blueprint for future development.

The green light has been given for the country’s first fully adapted sports centre which will cater for people with, and without, physical and intellectual disabilities at the same time.

Plans to redevelop Ireland’s most expensive house, bought by developer Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea for €58m in 2005, have been rejected.

Residents of an East Cork community fear their locality may be chosen for a third Eirgrid development after the State-owned electricity operator indicated it would be carrying out tests in the area for a potential international connection with the continent.

Cork City Council has allowed retention permission for the use of an old city-centre schoolyard as an ancillary to a pub.

Latest planning notes and updates January 2015

A High Court challenge has been brought against An Bord Pleanála’s decision to allow developers demolish the former hospital where Michael Collins’ body was taken after he was shot at Beal na Blath in August 1922.

An Bord Pleanála has received three appeals against plans to construct a major retail outlet on a derelict site in Youghal.

A site is still being sought in Dublin for a memorial to victims of institutional abuse, after a €31,000 spend on an earlier unsuccessful plan.

A sum of €4.35m, set aside this year by the National Roads Authority (NRA) for upgrading the N86 Tralee to Dingle road, will now be spent in another part of the country.

A call has been made for more research into the impact of wind turbines on hen harriers in upland areas along the borders of counties Cork, Limerick, and Kerry.

A strong plea was yesterday made to An Taisce not to proceed with a judicial review in the High Court of a project to upgrade a major tourist route.

An Taisce is to challenge a decision by An Bord Pleanála to give the green light to major works, including cycle lanes, on one of the country’s busiest tourist roads.

The proposed conversion of a former bank building in the Cork suburb of Douglas to a Wetherspoon’s pub is the subject of a further information request from planners. 

Plans by Supermacs supremo Pat McDonagh to repeat the success of his Barack Obama Plaza in Co Clare are in jeopardy.

Final planning permission has been granted for more than 250 wind turbines in just the past two years, according to an analysis of cases before An Bord Pleanála (ABP). *

Concern has been expressed about a windfarm project in Co Cork which will feature the same type of turbine which collapsed on a mountainside in the North last week.

The go-ahead by Kerry County Council for a rooftop terrace cafe near Ladies’ View on the Ring of Kerry, one of the most visited spots overlooking the lakes of Killarney, has been appealed by the National Roads Authority which has expressed “serious concern” at the decision.