Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 May 2025
724. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage f he can provide any monitoring function or statistics or reports on the time it takes to get pre-planning meetings at the various county councils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23610/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the current Development Management Guidelines for Planning Authorities of 2007 (Chapter 2.5), which were issued under section 28 of the Act of 2000, planning authorities are advised that requests for preplanning consultations should be facilitated as quickly as possible so that where a meeting with the area planner is requested, such a meeting should ideally be arranged within 2-3 weeks.
The purpose of preplanning meetings is to identify any potential issues arising from the proposal at an early stage so as to avoid unnecessary delays or costs following the submission of the application. In order to expedite the process, pre-application consultations may be conducted via phone or email. Face-to-face meetings are also available, but may be reserved for larger or more complex proposals. These will generally be arranged by the local authority Development Management Planning team.
Since February of this year, my Department has established a new unit within the Planning Division to oversee performance and innovation across the planning system. This unit is currently developing a new Planning Excellence Framework. This framework will set out the attributes of a high performing planning system and will enable the identification, monitoring and evaluation of performance data across all 31 planning authorities with a view addressing possible blockages and resourcing issues within the planning system.
