NEW PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT LEGISLATION AIMS TO FIT THE BILL

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An improved planning regime has taken a step closer with the publication of Draft Planning and Development Bill 2022, to bring greater clarity, consistency and certainty to how planning decisions are made.

The main provisions in the Bill, the product of a 15-month review of the planning system led by the Office of the Attorney General, will include strengthened legal status for ministerial guidelines, and the lifespan of local development plans to be extended from six years to ten years, with a review after the fifth year.

If enacted, the Bill will make the planning system more coherent and user-friendly for the public and planning practitioners. Plans will be more strategic in nature, and they will give a strong sense of what is being planned for areas before any planning applications emerge.

  • Statutory mandatory timelines for all consent processes, including An Bord Pleanála (ABP) decisions, to bring certainty to the planning consent process. 
  • Changes to Judicial Reviews (JRs) of planning decisions: there will be timelines for various steps in the JR process.
  • ABP will be re-named An Coimisiún Pleanála (The Planning Commission) and its decision-making and governance structures separated.

Welcoming the publication of the Draft Bill, the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said that the Government has been mindful of ensuring that public participation is safeguarded within our planning system. “This legislation will improve its accessibility and encourage the wider public to engage in the plan-making processes of their local towns and cities”.

 Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell said that the legislation strikes the right balance between efficient delivery of key infrastructure such as housing and renewable energy systems, with consideration of environmental and social impacts, informed by public participation.

“A wide range of stakeholders from across a diverse range of sectors have informed this process through mechanisms such as the Planning Advisory Forum. This has helped to highlight the areas of commonality across a system seeking greater clarity, consistency and certainty, aims that will be delivered through this proposed legislation,” he noted.

www.gov.ie/en/publication/c6f60-draft-planning-and-development-bill-2022/