Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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142. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has plans to provide additional funding to An Bord Pleanála to assist in alleviating the backlog in their caseload that is affecting current housing projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3642/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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An Bord Pleanála is the national independent statutory body with responsibility for the determination of planning appeals and direct applications for strategic infrastructure and other developments under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, and certain other Acts.

Section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides that it shall be the duty and objective of the Board to decide appeals as expeditiously as may be and, for that purpose, to take all such steps as are open to it to ensure that, insofar as is practicable, there are no avoidable delays at any stage in the determination of appeals.

In November 2022, following an updated assessment by the Board of resourcing issues likely to emerge as a result of planning applications for the National Development Plan and other infrastructure projects, the Board's new marine functions, as well as a number of senior positions approved under the Action Plan for An Bord Pleanála, and in accordance with the 2022-2023 Workforce Plan, the Board sought sanction for 34 additional posts. The Department provided sanction for these additional 34 posts in December 2022 and An Bord Pleanála is in the process of filling these positions.

I appointed three temporary ordinary members to the Board of An Bord Pleanála in early January 2023 and intend to make further temporary appointments in the near future. In addition, there is an ongoing competition in the Public Appointments Service (PAS) to recruit an ordinary board member with a marine planning background and an appointment is due to be made in February following interviews.

The Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Act 2022, includes provisions to increase the overall number of ordinary Board members on the Board of An Bord Pleanála. The provision to increase the overall number of Board members is necessary so as to ensure that the significant caseload can be effectively processed, and the appropriate quorums and suitable allocation of casefiles can be assured.

Finally, An Bord Pleanála have received an exchequer allocation of €26.9 million for 2023, which is an increase of €4.7million on the 2022 allocation.