Planning delays put 'lives on hold'

A Cork County Councillor is calling for emergency action to be taken to address unprecedented lengthy delays with decisions from An Bord Pleanála (ABP).

Speaking at Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council, Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus McGrath said many delays can take more than 12 months, forcing people to “put their lives on hold”.

“People are trying to make life decisions on where they send their children to school. Many of them are currently renting which is costing them additional money that they would like to put into their home,” he said.

While Cllr McGrath acknowledged the publishing of the draft Planning and Development Bill last month, he said it will take time to be brought into law and that immediate action is needed in the meantime.

He said: “There are obviously issues with staffing as well, so I think there needs to be emergency appointments by the minister to start speeding up decisions that have been left for so long and are eagerly awaited by so many stakeholders.

“I think in Dublin alone it has been estimated that there are permissions for over 4,000 homes held up in ABP.”

Mr McGrath also said that such delays during a housing crisis “make absolutely no sense” when development is needed on so many sites.

In a statement issued by An Bord Pleanála shortly before the new year, the independent body apologised for ongoing delays in determining cases and confirmed that 3 new board members will be assigned in the near future.

“An Bord Pleanála is currently managing a large volume of cases in all case type categories and is not meeting the statutory objective timeframes for decisions for a large number of these cases. An Bord Pleanála wishes to apologise for these delays.

“Over 2023, staff and board members will continue to seek to improve compliance levels with the statutory objective decision timelines as much as possible,” the statement read.