Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2026
446. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total cost to the Exchequer for the staffing of local authority planning and building control functions in 2025; and the number of staff that the funding covers. [47291/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt should be noted that, under 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/she is responsible including progressing appointments that have been sanctioned by my Department as appropriate. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels.
My Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis. However, granular data, in terms of the numbers of staff assigned to specific work areas or the cost of these posts in each local authority, is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from each local authority.
On 15 October 2024, the 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 and Budget 2026 to support the delivery of the recommendations set out in the Action Plan and a Steering Group established to coordinate and oversee the development of this Action Plan remains in place to oversee the implementation and ongoing review of the Action Plan.
The Department is currently working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, officials are 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 the first tranche 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 attract graduate planners into Ireland’s local authorities, (Action 4 of the Ministerial Action Plan) which was supported by the Department. Regional interviews were held in late July 2025 and most of these posts are now filled.
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.
Approval has also recently been conveyed for six graduate planner posts across the three Regional Assemblies to resource Planning and Economic Development functions at those levels.
In 2025, under the programme of planning supports, claims in the sum of €6,604,815.48 for pay and non-pay were paid as follows:
|
Pay |
Additional Planning Resources |
€6,189,221.54 |
|
Non-Pay |
Training, Graduate Planner Campaign |
€415,593.94 |
