Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 27 April 2023

Public Accounts Committee

An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021

9:30 am

Ms Oonagh Buckley:

No, but the really important one is that by November of last year, there were only four functioning board members taking decisions. We are now up to 14. That is the game-changer because it is about the 900-plus files the inspectors have done their reports on. They are physical files. We are not digitised in the board yet. They are literally sitting in every space on the floors around board members and we have to get to grips with them. They are a visual representation of the backlog at board level. Additional board members have been appointed by the Minister. We need to start pushing files through that and getting decisions out of An Bord Pleanála.