Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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67. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to extend the five years on planning permission that was issued in the past few years due to Covid-19 related delays due to construction being stopped due to restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36741/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Under section 42 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 ('the Act') the holder of a planning permission may apply to the planning authority for an extension to the period of permission, prior to the expiration of that permission. On application, the authority shall extend the appropriate period by such additional period not exceeding 5 years as the authority considers requisite to enable the development to which the permission relates to be completed, provided that, the development was commenced before the expiration of the permission, substantial works were carried out and the development will be completed within a reasonable time.

If an extension to planning permission has been previously granted, the only circumstance in which the holder of a planning permission may be granted a second extension of duration is under section 42(1A) of the Act in respect of a development that relates to 20 or more houses subject to the development being completed within 5 years of the originally extended permission or by 31 December 2021 (which provision was extended by Government Orders under Section 251A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 in 2020), whichever first occurs.

My Department has prepared legislation (the Planning and Development (Amendment)(No.3) Bill 2021) which is currently before the Dáil, having already been passed by the Seanad. If signed into law, this proposed Act will, inter alia, bring forward additional temporary legislative amendments to provide for a further extension of duration of previously extended permissions, having regard to the construction delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, where those developments were commenced with substantial works carried out and where environmental assessment is not required in relation to the proposed extension of time.

This temporary proposal will allow for further extensions of the duration of planning permissions that were previously extended by a period of up to two years, or until 31 December 2023, whichever first occurs. The proposal will also allow for the further extension of the duration of permissions that meet the above criteria, which have expired or are due to expire during the period from 8 January 2021 (when the most recent construction restrictions were introduced) to the day before the new provision comes into operation, and such applications must be lodged within 6 months after the commencement of that provision.