Dr. Se?n O'Leary:

We accredit planning schools in UCD, TU Dublin and UCC. The courses of study available are a four year undergraduate programme or a masters degree. These courses are accredited every five years against education guidelines. The last education guidelines we set were in 2019 so they will be reviewed shortly. The courses have an emphasis on access and additional needs. There are a number of core elements that every qualified planner needs to have on graduation and then there are also optional elements. We will be looking at these optional elements. That reflects some of the issues that the committee has raised. There are also additional considerations like developments in climate action and marine spatial planning. There is a whole range of things so those guidelines need to be kept alive. One becomes a full member of the institute if one has two years satisfactory post-qualification experience. One graduates as a graduate member and then one becomes a full or a corporate member after two years.

Regarding the resources issue, research from the County and City Management Association, CCMA, states that in planning departments in local authorities, with the current legislation rather than the Bill going through at the moment, there is a shortage of 541 people in the planning system. That includes planners in local authorities and also administrators and other people with relevant urban design qualifications.

We are concerned that the current Bill is looking for a whole new skill set in areas like urban design which are not necessarily in the country in terms of planners and other built environment professionals. The pipeline issue is relevant to this conversation as well. Across the three accredited programmes, 70 to 75 planners graduate every year.

They go in to An Bord Pleanála, local authorities, private practice, semi-State bodies, climate action, renewables and a whole range of areas. Many of them are international students going back to other jurisdictions. We are alive to the need to increase the skills of planners and make sure their awareness and understanding of this increases while also having to deliver other things across a limited number of credits, keep them in the system and make sure they are applying the skills in the system. That is something else we are working to do.