Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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1064. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he envisages a backlog in planning applications and appeals to An Bord Pleanála; and the steps his Department has taken to ensure that An Bord Pleanála has the adequate resources to deal with such a backlog should it arise. [7839/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Further to the COVID-19 related restrictive (including stay at home) measures introduced on foot of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020, enacted on 27 March 2020, and subsequent extensions of the initial restrictive measures, the Government has, to date, made three Orders under section 251A of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Planning Act), extending the duration of all relevant periods and timelines specified in planning legislation by a cumulative total of 56 days/8 weeks. This was done to maintain the integrity of the planning system and to ensure that public participation requirements therein are not diminished.

The expiration of the third Order on 23 May 2020 means that a planning authority will have the normal period of 8 weeks, together with an additional period of up to 8 weeks, i.e. up to 16 weeks in total, to determine a planning application. The Orders also mean that an interested person will have the normal period of 5 weeks, together with an additional period of up to 8 weeks, i.e. up to 13 weeks in total, to participate in the process in relation to planning applications. The exact calculation of the extended time period will depend on the date a planning application is submitted and the stage of the process it is at.

During the period of the three Orders, An Bord Pleanala (the Board) has remained open for business, accepting applications, appeals and observations. The Board has continued to make decisions regarding Strategic Infrastructure Developments, Strategic Housing Developments (where for example, it made decisions on 11 cases in April 2020, the same number of decisions as in the corresponding month in 2019, ensuring that decisions were made in all cases within the mandatory 16 week decision timeline), vacant site levy appeals and normal planning appeals where the public participation process involved was complete prior to the making of the first Order under section 251A of the Planning Act.

Following on from the Government's Roadmap for Re-Opening Society and Business published on 1 May last, and the subsequent resumption of activity in the construction sector from 18 May last under Phase 1 of the Roadmap, I decided not to recommend to Government the further extension of the recent COVID-19 related Orders under section 251A of the Planning Act. This has enabled the re-opening of planning authority offices and the phased resumption of planning operations in accordance with public health guidance and relevant return to work protocols from earlier this week i.e. 25 May.

In light of this, decision making processes under the planning system, including those requiring public participation, are now beginning to be advanced again.

My Department has worked with planning authorities and An Bord Pleanala during the period of the COVID-19 restrictions with a view to ensuring that work was progressed on planning files to the fullest extent possible, thereby facilitating the smooth resumption and delivery of planning services on return to work and minimising the build-up of any backlogs. The Board has not indicated the necessity for any additional resources at this time.