Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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105. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will seek to amend the planning Act to allow for the extension of the duration of planning permissions as per the schedule (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21908/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with sections 40 and 41 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, planning permissions normally expire after 5 years, unless a longer period is specified in the permission. Section 42 of the Act provides that, on application in that behalf, a planning authority shall, once and once only and provided specified conditions are met, extend the duration of a planning permission for a specified period not exceeding 5 years. These enactments provide considerable flexibility to accommodate the changed circumstances of individual developments. Nevertheless, I will keep under review whether provision might appropriately be made to allow for a second extension of the duration of planning permissions, which would enable dormant permissions to be activated more than 10 years after they were originally granted, having regard to the need to also take account of changes in national or local planning policies that may have taken place in the intervening period.