James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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361. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will outline each metric his Department is using to monitor the impact of the Planning and Development Act 2024’s provisions; the breakdown of any data available on the impact of enacted provisions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68166/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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My Department has overseen considerable legislative and structural reform of the Irish planning system over the past two years.

The National Planning Framework has been reviewed to reflect Ireland’s housing and infrastructure goals associated with a growing population and economy, and provides the planning system with a strategic plan to shape the future growth and development of our Country to 2040.

In addition, the Planning and Development Act 2024 (the Act) represents the most significant update of planning legislation in a quarter century and contains many impactful reforms. These reforms include the introduction of longer-term, more strategic Development Plan Making and enhanced alignment of the tiers of plan-making, including the introduction of Government approved National Planning Statements.

It is proposed to commence the Act in 4 phases, with the first group of commencements in 2025. Given the complexities associated with the implementation of the new legislation, and the requirement for the development of revised secondary legislation, the commencement timeline will be updated regularly and confirmation of specific dates will be issued in advance of any provisions coming into effect.

The Act was enacted in October 2024 and is in the process of being commenced. In the meantime, the provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (Act of 2000), and associated Planning and Development Regulations 2001 remain in force until the relevant sections of the Act are commenced and the corresponding sections of the Act of 2000 are repealed.

Alongside the above reforms, my Department is also currently revising exempted development Regulation and implementing the Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources, which covers a range of measures to address resourcing challenges across the sector.

A new Strategic Performance and Innovation Unit has been established within the Planning Division in my Department to examine improvement and performance within the planning system. This Unit will develop a National Planning Excellence Framework (NPEF), which will highlight best practice in the public planning system, while also identifying areas in need of support and improvement.

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) and the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) continually monitor the performance of local authorities including in regards to their decision making functions. In December 2024, the OPR published ‘Planning in Numbers’, a five-year strategic review of planning trends and outputs in Ireland, from 2019-2023, while in September of this year, NOAC published ‘The 2024 Performance Indicator Report’ which measures the performance of local authorities against relevant indicators.