Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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746. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the dates and attendees of each meeting of the implementation group of the organisational review of An Bord Pleanála which was published in 2016; the person that chaired each meeting; and the dates and attendees of each meeting between this group and his Department since the publication of the report. [26360/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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An Organisational Review of An Bord Pleanála was undertaken by an independent expert panel and published in March 2016.

An Implementation Group, comprising representation from my Department and An Bord Pleanála (the Board) was established to oversee the implementation of the expert panel recommendations. The review group is co-chaired by the Principal Officer in the Planning Policy Section of my Department and the Chief Officer of the Board. The Group reports to the Assistant Secretary with responsibility for Planning in my Department and the Chair of the Board.

The Implementation Group published its Terms of Reference and Plan for Implementation in 2016. The Implementation Group has met formally on a number of occasions (18 October 2016, 25 November 2016, 26 January 2017, 22 September 2017 and 22 May 2019) and informally on 18 August 2017, to consider the recommendations across a number of common themes relating to legislative provisions, communications and stakeholder engagement, the Board's role and governance, along with organisational and operational matters. A table detailing dates and attendees is included below. The schedule of meetings also reflects the Board's need to deliver on other reform initiatives outside of the review, particularly the introduction and early operation of the new Strategic Housing Development process in the second half of 2017 and into 2018.

Both my Department and the Board have continued to progress their relevant recommendations between meetings of the group and also through routine engagements which take place on a regular basis to progress a variety of matters including workforce planning, governance and oversight, the Board's Information and Communications Technology project and legislative matters, some of which are relevant to the work which is being undertaken in addressing the organisational review. The impact of the progress made is demonstrated in significant improvements being achieved by the Board in its rate of compliance with the target periods for determination of cases.

A further formal meeting of the Implementation Group will be held in Q3 2019. The membership of the Implementation Group is published in its Terms of Reference which is available on my Department’s website at the following link: .

Due to a number of recent staff changes in both organisations, the membership of the review group will be refreshed in advance of the next formal meeting. The Implementation Group will continue its work over the coming months with a view to publishing its final report on implementation by the end of Q3 2019.