Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's second question concerned the statutory timelines. When we had a debate on this matter in the Seanad and in the Dáil, that was considered. Generally, 80% to 82% of An Bord Pleanála's cases are dealt with within the statutory timelines. It has a service level agreement with our Department to reach that target. In 2017, it was lower than that and only 65% to 66% of cases were dealt with within the statutory timelines, mainly because the board was down members and was awaiting appointees. It was also seeking more staff, which we facilitated during 2017. We will monitor that. Sometimes the 20% of cases that are not dealt with within the specific timelines comprise high profile ones. That is something we monitor and we discuss it in the context of the service level agreement. We can review it and discuss it further, if we are of the view that we need to change the rules. We need some certainty around timelines from the planning system. The main reason for the changes we made in 2016 was to introduce some certainty and to encourage people who owned land - that is, unzoned - to bring forward applications. We gave a commitment that we would give applicants a decision within a certain timeframe. That assists with the costs involved and the business case in order to fast-track planning.

The Deputy asked if this had any impact on non-strategic housing developments. We have not noticed anything different but we can do a check and do a trawl to be sure about that. By increasing the overall complement of the board and meeting the staff requirements following the review in 2016, An Bord Pleanála should be in a better position to be able to reach its overall targets.