Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is guidance. There is an interesting note on the valuation of car parks in the context of shopping centres where the main supermarket or property company may own the whole thing and there may be an anchor tenant and other tenants. Individual rates may not be paid but there would be a reflection in the rents. The bottom line for the people who operate the car park is that it is rateable. That is interesting for people involved in that trade and we will follow up on that outstanding item of information.

No. 2505 B is from Mr. Dave Walsh, chairperson, An Bord Pleanála, dated 25 October 2019. It provides information requested by the committee at our meeting on 3 October 2019, including a breakdown of the 2,800 decisions made by the board, encompassing the number of decisions made by the full board and those made by a partial board. Mr. Walsh states that 88% of all meetings comprised the full board. That is my understanding of the answer given to our first question. The second question concerned categories of decisions where the chairman felt that it was an appropriate matter to bring to the full board. Mr. Walsh refers to that as category one.

It is also noted that we asked two questions that are more appropriate to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, namely, the number of times in which the Minister has invoked section 181 powers to grant permission and the issue of gender balance on the board. Those are matters on which the Department will have to reply to us.

Mr. Walsh gives further information on the current status of the 101 recommendations of the 2016 report. That information is here. Our fifth query concerned a breakdown of the categories of respondents to the consultation regarding An Bord Pleanála's website. That response can be read and includes details on the type of people who access the website.

A note on gender balance is also included and the Minister will be asked to answer that query. Copies of the resumés of all of the board members are attached, as is a breakdown of the number of decisions of the board accepting an inspector's recommendation. People will be interested in this topic. Mr. Walsh has stated that in 89% of cases the report of the inspector is accepted but not in the other 11%. An acceptance rate of about 90% is fairly high and it would be inevitable that the board would be entitled to make its own decision on some cases.

Mr. Walsh's letter next addresses the issue of strategic infrastructure decisions. Some 84% of all such applications are granted, with 16% refused. That is interesting because there is a presumption abroad that under the strategic infrastructure process, if there is a meeting with the board, the details of an application are gone through and that application is then submitted on the basis that confirmation would almost be certain. That is not quite the case, as some 16% of applications are refused at the end of the process.

Our next query dealt with the number of cases that have been with An Bord Pleanála for more than a year. There are 74 of those and details are given in the correspondence. Some of those instances are referral cases and some involve complex legalities. All of the information is given in the correspondence.

We also inquired about the number of oral hearings upheld by the board. Mr. Walsh informs us that oral hearings were held in nine planning cases in 2018 and the planning authority upheld decisions in eight cases.

Our 12th question regarded cases where the decision of An Bord Pleanála contravened a county development plan. The correspondence states that An Bord Pleanála does not gather such information. It makes its decision and is aware of the county development plan, but An Bord Pleanála does not gather statistics on cases where such decisions are made. We know An Bord Pleanála takes such information into account, but it is not legally bound to follow the county development plan. That is because things are often put into a development plan for good local reasons that would not stand up to the scrutiny of An Bord Pleanála.

That is good information, it is good to get it and I thank An Bord Pleanála for supplying all of the information requested. We will note and publish that information.