Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. We are all acutely aware of the issues that An Bord Pleanála went through. We have stabilised the organisation. There were as few as five members on its board at one stage. We basically had to stabilise and reform it. Part of the Planning and Development Bill that will be going into the Seanad is about the reform of An Bord Pleanála, which will become an commisiún pleanála.

We must look at why cases are before the board. There are cases brought to the board that would be questionable, but I respect the third-party rights that people are allowed in that regard. The important thing is what we are doing about it. We have approved 117 new posts for An Bord Pleanála, which will bring its staff complement to 313 people. Right now, 267 people are working there. These staff will literally go through the planning files. That is a 50% increase since 2021. That is the first thing. We cannot just throw a stone onto O'Connell Street and hit a planner, however. We need to have people with the requisite experience. An Bord Pleanála is continually recruiting. There is a new chairperson, who was appointed on a seven-year term, Mr. Peter Mullan, and 14 other board members now as well. They are holding parallel meetings to work through the backlog of cases.

I will give an example of the progress that has been made. Further progress is absolutely needed because we all know of cases that have been stuck there for far too long. If one was to talk to the man or the woman on the street about planning, probably the first word that would come into his or her mind would be "delays". Delays lead to costs. As stated earlier, delays lead to supply being restricted. An example of progress is that in April, the board disposed of 309 cases. That is 170% up on April of 2023. I met with the chairperson and the board about two months ago. They presented to the Cabinet sub-committee on housing in respect of their backlog plan. The chairperson advises me that by the end of the second quarter - in other words,, by the end of this month - we will be back to what would be deemed normal process.