Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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291. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if consideration is being given in the overhaul of An Bord Pleanála of allowing observations on and-or objections to planning permissions to be submitted online, as is the case in most planning departments of local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2744/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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An Bord Pleanála is a quasi-judicial body which carries out its statutory functions independently of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

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 is Oireachtasqueries@pleanala.ie.

An Bord Pleanála (the Board) has informed my Department that the development and roll-out of the Board’s ICT systems to better enable e-planning remains a significant priority and the current phase of development aims to facilitate applications and appeals to be made online, linking in with the planning authorities’ own e-Planning initiative.

The Board introduced an online facility to accept observations relating to Strategic Housing Development Applications with the required fee in November 2020.

In April 2021, the Board launched its new upgraded website, which is more user-friendly, informative and will further help to improve communications and interaction between the Board and the public. To assist with the continued development and enhancement of online services, an external company obtained specific feedback from targeted user groups such as the public, agents, and local authorities which led to additional improvements to be made to the website including advanced search facilities through maps and a generally more user friendly presentation of the search facility.

Since December 2021 the Board can now accept online observations with fee payment for both Strategic Infrastructure Development Cases and Normal Planning Appeal cases. The Board is fully co-operating with the current LGMA e-planning pilot, which went live in Tipperary County Council and Galway County Council in Q4 2021, and is accepting planning authority documentation from both authorities in digital format on a pilot basis.

Since October 2022 the Board can now accept online observations with fee payment for Large Scale Residential Development (LSRD) cases.

The Board is currently gathering requirements for an integrated Digital Services Hub (DSH) on its website which will consolidate the existing online facilities in one location and provide a simple and user friendly way of interacting electronically with the Board ultimately across its full range of statutory functions.