Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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284. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the strategic housing developments that have been granted permission since 2017; the number that have been refused; the number of these developments that have commenced; the number of these permissions that have been completed; the number of judicial reviews of An Bord Pleanála decisions on strategic housing developments; the outcome of these proceedings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39645/20]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 (the Act) introduced new streamlined arrangements to enable planning applications for strategic housing developments (SHDs) of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation or shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more, to be made directly to An Bord Pleanála (the Board) for determination.

From the commencement of the new SHD arrangements in 2017 up until end October 2020, the Board had received 265 SHD applications and had decided 230 cases. The Board had granted permission in 168 cases in respect of a total of 44,042 housing units (comprising 12,229 houses, 24,839 apartments and 6,974 build to rent), as well as 195 shared accommodation units and 11,934 student bed spaces under the SHD arrangements. I understand that the remaining 62 cases decided have either been refused by the Board or are developments which were originally granted by the Board but set aside as a result of a judicial review.

The status of individual developments which have been granted permission under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, is not routinely maintained by my Department given that some 30,000 planning permissions are granted nationally on an annual basis. My Department has conducted periodic research on the activation rate of SHD permissions and the most recent data in this regard would indicate that works have commenced on 29% of SHD permissions granted to date since the arrangements came into operation. There can be some delay for various reasons, such as phasing of development, in the activation of housing developments post the granting of permission. In this connection, if permissions granted in 2020 are excluded from the calculations, the data indicates that works have commenced on 45% of the SHD permissions granted in 2018 (when the first permissions were granted) and 2019.

The Programme for Government commits to not extending the SHD arrangements beyond their legislative expiry date of end December 2021, which has now been extended to February 2022 arising from Covid-related shutdown of the planning system for 8 weeks, which extended all planning timelines by 8 weeks. The process for winding up the SHD arrangements will be considered by my Department over the coming months.

In relation to judicial reviews, the recording of court cases is one in which I have no statutory function and is a matter for the Courts Service which is statutorily independent.

An Bord Pleanála can be challenged by Judicial Review on a range of its functions, including decisions on SHD planning applications, and it publishes an update on legal cases in its Annual Report. Arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. This provides a speedy, efficient and cost effective system to address queries directly to the relevant bodies. The contact email address for An Bord Pleanála in this regard is .