Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1316. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of planning appeals against local authority decisions decided in 2018 by An Bord Pleanála; the number of these decided within the statutory objective time of four months; the average time it takes to decide appeals; the steps he plans to take in terms of the provision of resources or otherwise to address the delay in dealing with planning appeals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25077/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Under Section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, An Bord Pleanála has a statutory objective to determine planning appeals within 18 weeks. Where the Board does not consider it possible or appropriate to reach a decision within 18 weeks (e.g. because of the particular complexities of a case or the requirement to hold an oral hearing), it will inform the parties of the reasons for this, and will indicate when it intends to make its decision.

During the period January to April 2018, the Board received 713 normal planning appeals and disposed of 635 cases, 222 of which were disposed of within the statutory objective period, resulting in a compliance rate of 35%. This overall reduction in the compliance rate can be attributed to a number of factors.

Firstly, there was a reduction in Board capacity in mid-2017, arising from a time interval between the departure of five outgoing Board members, whose terms of office had expired in April and May, and the five new replacement Board members taking up their posts. While by September 2017, the Board complement had been fully replenished, this time interval significantly impacted on the Board’s case work output for some time thereafter.

In addition, An Bord Pleanála is also implementing a major ICT strategy which will facilitate the introduction of on-line planning services as part of a complete upgrade and replacement of core systems. In this regard, a new case management system was installed and became operational in Q4 2017. As is to be expected with such a fundamental and integrated project, the transition to the new system has caused some initial disruption to the processing of cases, resulting in a further increase in the backlog of cases on hand. However, measures have been put in place to ensure that the new system is bedded down and becomes operational at an optimal level as soon as possible.

Furthermore, during this period, there has been a general increase in cases received by the Board. For example, there was an increase of almost 12% on normal planning appeals received in 2017 compared to 2016; this upward trend has continued into 2018. The intake of normal planning appeals at end-April 2018 was 17% greater than the intake at end-April 2017. As mentioned above, during the period January to April 2018, the Board disposed of 635 appeal cases, compared to 601 cases during the same period in 2017.

Now that the Board's full complement has been restored, combined with the measures that are being put in place in relation to the new ICT systems, it is expected that the backlog of cases will begin to reduce over the coming months, with an associated improvement in the compliance rate with the statutory objective period for the determination of cases.

It should be noted that, in line with Government policy in relation to the provision of housing supply, all planning appeals in respect of housing developments of 30 units or more are prioritised by the Board for decision. The Board also prioritises developments which have a significant employment or economic potential on a national, regional or local scale as well as new, and extensions to, school buildings and educational facilities.

In relation to priority cases being dealt with by the Board, since July 2017, the Board has been determining planning applications for strategic housing developments (SHDs) made directly to it within the 16-week timeframe prescribed for such planning applications under the provisions of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016. At end-April 2018, 24 SHD planning applications had been made, with the Board issuing decisions in 16 cases, all of which were made within the prescribed 16-week timeframe.

My Department liaises closely with the Board to ensure that it has appropriate resources in relation to the performance of its functions. With regard to the additional functions in relation to SHDs recently assigned to the Board, a new Strategic Housing Division of the Board has been established to decide on these applications, involving the recruitment of an additional dedicated 10 professional and administrative staff members in 2017. Two additional Boards members have also been sanctioned to serve this Division, with the appointments being made in February and June this year. The Board now has a complement of 11 members and there are over 150 staff members employed by An Bord Pleanála. I am satisfied that the Board has sufficient and necessary resources in this regard.