Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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1327. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline the total number of residential development applications with An Bord Pleanála at present; the number of residential units involved in total in these applications, including all applications, including one-off houses and applications for multiple units; and the average period of time since these residential applications were submitted or appealed to An Bord Pleanála. [20665/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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An Bord Pleanála (the Board) 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.

The Planning and Development Act 2024, includes a number of new provisions relating to An Bord Pleanála, which will be renamed An Coimisiún Pleanála, as part of a significant restructure. The Act will introduce statutory time periods for decision making for all consent processes, including, for the first time, for the Board/An Coimisiún Pleanála. This will bring increased certainty to the planning consent processes, for both the public and stakeholders involved in the delivery of key infrastructure such as housing and renewable energy. For Coimisiún processes, timelines are being introduced for appeals as well as the various consents applications made directly to the Coimisiún.

The Board has been working to address the backlog of cases currently awaiting a decision more quickly than before. Progress on addressing this backlog is reported to my Department on a monthly basis. The total number of cases on hand on 31 March was 1,369, down from 2,272 on the equivalent date in 2024, a reduction of 40% in one year. As recently as May 2023, the number of cases on hand was 3,616. This increased workload has been enabled by significant additional resources. Since October 2021, my Department has agreed to 117 new staffing posts in An Bord Pleanála.

The specific information requested is not held by my Department. 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