Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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506. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of times that an Bord Pleanála overruled the recommendation of its own inspectors in each of the years 2017 to 2020; and the number of those decisions to overrule that were subsequently the subject of a legal challenge in tabular form. [1027/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Since the establishment of An Bord Pleanála in 1977, planning legislation has clearly assigned final responsibility for decisions on planning appeals to the Board of An Bord Pleanála. The role of the Board is to consider the Inspector’s report, along with all other relevant application documentation and submissions from third parties including observers, in order to come to a final decision. Where the Board’s conclusion differs from that of the inspector, the decision must include the reasons for so differing in order to ensure transparency in the decision making process.

Consequently, the data requested is not collated by this Department. Planning statistics are compiled by each planning authority on an annual basis for collation and publication on my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/service/9e4ee-get-planning-statistics/. The data collected relates to the total number of applications and decisions for all developments that require planning permission, broken down by year and planning authority.

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 Oireachtasqueries@pleanala.ie