Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no statutory limit for An Bord Pleanála. Under the Planning and Development Act, we intend to introduce statutory time limits during which An Bord Pleanála has to make a decision on an appeal.

That also means staffing up An Bord Pleanála to ensure it can actually achieve that because we do not want the refusal rate to go up as a means of satisfying the timeline. That can happen sometimes. We are staffing up An Bord Pleanála, bringing in the extra skills it needs, appointing new board members and getting ready for the introduction of those statutory deadlines contained in the Planning and Development Act. We also need to ensure judicial reviews happen less frequently and when they do happen, happen more quickly. The Deputy will be aware of the additional judges we are appointing to the courts. In particular, the additional judges we are appointing to the courts will allow some judges to be asked to specialise in family law cases and planning cases so those cases can be dealt with more quickly and dealt with by judges who have built up a level of skill and familiarity with cases of that nature.

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