James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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402. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider the issues raised by a person (details supplied) and provide a response in relation to development levy wavers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28897/25]

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. Under section 30 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, the Minister is specifically precluded from exercising power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála (the Board) is or may be concerned.

Section 126 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that it shall be the duty and objective of An Bord Pleanála 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.

Section 126 also provides that it shall be an objective of the Board to ensure that every appeal is determined within 18 weeks beginning on the date of receipt of an appeal. Where it is not possible or appropriate, because of the particular circumstances of an appeal, to determine an appeal within the 18 week period the Board is required to notify the participants in the appeal before the expiration of that period giving the reason for not meeting the objective target and specifying a date before which the Board intends to determine the appeal. Where any case has exceeded the statutory objective period then the Board will have written to the parties involved as per these statutory requirements. In circumstances where any new date is not met it is the practice of the Board to also notify the parties of that and the reason for the further delay.

It is important to acknowledge that a certain percentage of cases, due to particular circumstances, such as complexity, requests for further information from applicants for permission or further submissions from other participants including third parties, will not meet the 18 week target.

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 30 April was 1,364, down from 2,141 on the equivalent date in 2024, a reduction of 36% in one year.

The Housing for All Action Plan to incentivise the activation of increased housing supply and help reduce housing construction costs, including the introduction of temporary time-limited arrangements for the waiving of local authority “section 48” development contributions and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and waste water connection charges.

The schemes originally applied for one year to all permitted residential development that commenced on site between 25th April 2023 (the date of the Government Decision approving the measure) and 24th April 2024, and that are completed not later than 31st December 2025. On 23rd April 2024, the Government approved an extension for the waiving of local authority “section 48” development contributions in respect of residential development commenced not later than 31st December 2024 and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and waste water connection charges in respect of residential development commenced not later than 30th September 2024.

In April 2024, the final date for the completion of development works on qualifying houses under the schemes was extended from 31st December 2025 to 31st December 2026.

The temporary measures were always intended to be time-bound and this waiver has had the desired effect to deliver more housing. In the interest of consistency and fairness in the application of the waiver scheme nationally, it is not proposed to extend these deadlines for individual applications beyond those as approved by the Government in its Decision of 23rd April 2024.