Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 May 2026
673. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in view of the commitment to 'significant resources in the 2024 Action Plan, to provide a breakdown of the way in which the funding secured in Budget 2025 has been allocated specifically to frontline planning posts in local authorities versus administrative or department-level oversight; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34040/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. Granular data, in terms of the number of planning and administrative staff employed in each local authority, is not collected by my Department and the relevant information would be available directly from each local authority.
On 15 October 2024, my Department published a Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources to respond to capacity challenges in the planning sector. This Action Plan provides a detailed roadmap to increase the pool of planning and related expertise needed to ensure a planning system fit for future needs. It sets out 14 high-level actions that provide a coordinated pathway to ensure a sustainable pipeline of planning and related expertise into the future, addressing the areas of education, recruitment and retention, as well as measures to encourage greater innovation and efficiency.
Funding was secured in Budget 2025 to support delivery of the recommendations under this Action Plan and a Steering Group was established to coordinate and oversee the development of the Action Plan which will remain in place to oversee the implementation and ongoing review of the Action Plan.
My Department is currently working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, my Department is collaborating with the local government sector and key stakeholders on the delivery of a programme of supports to planning authorities. These supports include the provision of staffing resources and expertise to enable planning authorities to perform their functions efficiently and effectively.
In October 2023, approval was conveyed to the filling of an initial 101 posts in the local authority planning sector under Phase 1 of a programme of supports for planning resources. A further approval issued in January 2025 for 112 posts - 56 graduate planner posts and 56 staff officer posts - to support the Planning function within local authorities.
In May 2025, a national recruitment campaign was launched to recruit graduate planners into Ireland’s local authorities, which was supported by my Department. Regional interviews were held in late July 2025 and almost all posts are currently filled.
In addition, my Department currently funds a Grade V and Grade VI administrative posts within the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) to primarily support the work of the Planning Resources Working Group and to work with the HR Executive in the LGMA on the Graduate Planner Recruitment Programme respectively.
More recently, under Phase 3 of the programme of supports, 31 new full-time posts in the local authority planning services were approved across the 31 local authorities and funding for local authorities to support a summer intern programme for second and third year University planning students was also recently approved.
Funding of €10,909m was secured in Budget 2025 for pay related expenditure. The sum of €6,189,221.54 was subsequently recouped by local authorities and the LGMA in 2025. Table 1 attached sets out the planning and administrative sanctioned posts allocated to Planning Departments in local authorities under Phases 1-2 of the programme of support and posts recently approved under Phase 3.
