The ambitions of the new planning Bill “cannot realistically be achieved” unless substantial additional resources are dedicated to local authorities and the new Comisiún Pleanála, planners have told an Oireachtas Housing Committee.
The Draft Planning and Development Bill 2022 is designed to reform the planning process, with mandatory timelines for decisions and a greater alignment between national and local plans.
Professional bodies, the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) and the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Ireland, said the planning system was inadequately resourced to meet the current demands of the service and would not be in a position to cope with the requirements of the new Bill without significant staff increases.
“If the planning system is to work effectively and efficiently in the interests of all of our citizens, it has to be properly resourced, which it manifestly is not at present,” IPI vice-president Gavin Lawlor told the committee.
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“The Bill includes many additional responsibilities and actions, which will increase the workload in both the public and private sectors, and these will clearly require more resources. Also, while the principle of defined timelines for development management is recognised, such timelines must reflect the complexity of the cases involved,” he said.
“We don’t have the bums on the seats to do what’s in the current legislation and there’s a very significant question, maybe we should simplify some of this, maybe we crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run,” he told the committee.
There was a requirement for the employment of more planners, but also allied professions in both local authorities and in the new Comisiún Pleanála which will replace An Bord Pleanála, Mr Lawlor said.
“Ultimately, delivering on the potential of the Bill cannot realistically be achieved unless substantial further resources, not least additional planners, planning administrators and other specialists, such as ecologists, GIS specialists, and marine scientists, etc, are recruited both in local authorities and An Bord Pleanála/An Comisiún Pleanála. The funding of these resources should be explicitly dealt with in the Bill.”
Valerie Brennan, chairwoman of the RTPI, said there was an urgent need for research to quantify the recruitment needs of the service.
“We believe that there is chronic underfunding of the planning service which often results in planning staff being unable to meet the current demands placed upon them. The system must have the resources it requires. We also need to ensure that planners are equipped with the skills that are necessary and that the importance of professional qualifications and experience is recognised,” she said.
“Accordingly, we urge the Government to undertake or commission research to identify the number of planners that are in place across the country and the demands that are being placed upon them. This research should explore the trends over previous years; current planning department budgets; and the extent to which the costs of planning application fees meet the processing costs. There should be a stated goal of ensuring that the planning fees cover the full costs and that these are ‘ringfenced’ and reinvested in the planning service.”
Ms Brennan warned against the imposition of fines for failure to meet decision deadlines. “We do not believe it is appropriate to introduce fines for planning authorities if they do not meet arbitrary deadlines. We think that approaches to performance improvement should look to incentivise rather than penalise.”
Mr Lawlor said the IPI was disappointed by the lack of input from planning practitioners into the drafting of the Bill. “We also hope the expertise and planning judgment of planners will be further respected once enacted.”
