Mr. Joe Corr:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear. I am joined by Dr. Conor Norton, vice president of the Irish Planning Institute. We will do all we can to assist the committee regarding the views of planners on the strategic housing development review. The Irish Planning Institute is the all-island professional body representing planners engaged in physical and environmental planning. Our mission is to advance planning in the interest of the common good by serving, improving and promoting the planning profession. We are the largest professional membership body for spatial planners operating on the island of Ireland. Our members work across the planning system, including in planning consultancies, for developers, and in planning authorities, semi-State organisations, An Bord Pleanála and central government. We are a broad church of professional planners and our membership has developed great collective expertise through its interactions with various stages of the strategic housing development process.

As our members work across the planning system, the views they represented to us are quite diverse. The institute has long argued in favour of the principle of subsidiarity in planning such that, insofar as practicable, local planning decisions should be made by competent authorities at local level. However, the institute acknowledges and supports the overall purpose of strategic housing development to accelerate the delivery of much-needed housing in accordance with the principles and objectives contained in Rebuilding Ireland and as a temporary measure. More than 16,172 housing units and 7,573 units of student accommodation have been granted permission through this process by An Bord Pleanála since SHD was rolled out. This is a considerable achievement. Despite the changes facilitated in the planning system and increasing numbers of planning applications, the institute shares the concerns of many present that figures for building on the ground remain modest.

There are, of course, numerous hurdles developers have to jump after planning permission has been granted before they can actually start building. The post-permission period is increasingly more complex, with numerous compliance conditions that must be fulfilled on each site before construction can start.

The Irish Planning Institute, IPI, has consistently argued that local authority planning departments are not adequately resourced to carry out their range of functions and responsibilities. We have pointed to areas where problems still exist in terms of process. We have suggested, for example, greater resourcing for matters of compliance with conditions of permission, and we have suggested to the strategic housing development review group that these compliance certificates could be secured if necessary from An Bord Pleanála. As with all permissions, delay can still result from the judicial review processes post permission.

Delivery is critical, and it must be driven at local level. At our recent autumn planning conference I called for planner-led delivery teams to be created in all local authorities to bring forward urban regeneration in urban centres, to engage in active land management, and to assist in unlocking strategic lands where planning permissions have been granted.

In summary, I would like to highlight here today, as I have on other occasions, that the successful roll out of strategic housing development shows that planning per seis not the roadblock to delivery of housing. Our membership is anxious to avoid a scenario where planning permissions granted under the strategic housing development process will be used by developers or speculators to increase the value of land rather than the delivery of housing. We very much want to be part of the solution in working with other professions in the construction sector to deliver the housing our citizens so badly need.

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to come before the committee today. We will endeavour to respond to all of the committee's questions. If there is any additional information required arising from this meeting, we will be pleased to provide that information in a prompt manner.