Reforming the planning laws: ‘It was never going to be a short-term solution to the housing problem'

Irish Times

10-05-2025

Ireland's national planning authority is about to enter a new era after the 2022 governance scandal that shook the organisation to its core.
In the coming weeks
An Bord Pleánala
will change its name to An Coimisiún Pleanála and a number of structural changes will take place under the Planning and Development Act 2024.
The organisation's 14 board members will become commissioners and they will solely decide on cases and have no role in the running of the organisation. A Chief Planning Commissioner will also be hired.
The chairperson Peter Mullan will become chief executive and will run the business side of things. He will report to a new governing board, which will have at least five and no more than nine members, to be appointed by the
Minister for Housing
.
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The changes are designed to separate corporate decision-making and governance functions at the organisation and are the final step in restoring public confidence in the body and morale among the staff working there.
This section of the mammoth Planning and Development Act 2024, which is designed to reform how planning works in Ireland, is one of the first parts of the legislation to be commenced.
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This section, Part 17, is expected to go to Cabinet next week and be officially activated the following week.
The other main part of the legislation that will bring change to An Bord Pleanála is the introduction of mandatory statutory timelines for its decisions. Those timelines range from 18 to 24 weeks and there will be financial penalties for any failure to comply.
This part of the Act is not due to be commenced at the same time as the name change, though it is expected to be in place by the end of 2025.
All these changes are happening in the midst of a
housing crisis
, where builders and home buyers often point fingers at delays in Irish planning as one of the major contributory factors to the slow pace of building at a time when tens of thousands of new homes are needed every year.
So what impact will the changes to An Bord Pleanála have on the housing crisis and what other changes can we expect to see when the new legislation is fully commenced?
The context
It is difficult to talk about the changes coming at An Bord Pleanála without first recounting the upheaval at the authority over recent years.
In 2022 news broke of then deputy chairperson Paul Hyde's alleged conflict of interest on a number of cases. In 2023 he
received a suspended prison sentence
for failing to declare certain personal interests in a number of properties when a member of the planning body.
Former An Bord Pleanála deputy chairman Paul Hyde leaving court in Cork in November 2023. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney/Cork Courts
Chairman at the time Dave Walsh also took early retirement 'for personal and family reasons', creating a leadership vacuum.
An investigation into governance issues at An Bord Pleanála by senior counsel Lorna Lynch
concluded there were no sufficient grounds
to refer matters to the Minister for housing to determine if there was 'stated misbehaviour'.
She found, following an investigation into six governance areas involving a review of 175 case files, that there was no requirement for the planning board to initiate disciplinary action against any current or former employees.
The upheaval in management and a deficit in staffing led to a build-up of cases sitting with the board. At its peak there was a backlog of more than 3,600 cases, roughly double its usual roster of about 1,500.
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The national planning authority received approval from the Department of Housing to hire significantly more staff. It now has 290 full-time employees, up from 202 at the end of 2022, and 15 permanent board members.
This has resulted in a substantial reduction in the backlog, to 1,274 cases as of March 2025.
Mullan officially took over as chairperson in January 2024. He reflects on what has been an unprecedented period of disruption for the organisation.
'It was an existential crisis. The unethical and criminal behaviour of Paul Hyde brought this organisation to the very brink. We worked very, very hard to reestablish our reputation,' Mullan tells The Irish Times.
But how has the crisis affected staff and what do they think of the proposed changes?
A new name
Rebuilding the reputation of the organisation does not require a name change, or a change in governance, Mullan says, because he believes this has already been achieved.
But will it help? 'I think it will,' he says.
Other staff members were not so sure.
In May 2023 trade union Forsa, which represents a number of An Bord Pleanála staff, wrote to then minister for housing Darragh O'Brien outlining its opposition to the move.
The change in name 'reflects negatively on all who work in the organisation' and represents 'collective punishment' for all of those in the organisation who had worked with 'impartiality and integrity', while others at the very top had not, Forsa said at the time.
The turmoil and subsequent clean-up had a bruising and isolating effect on those who worked there, though that appears to be receding.
'There was a little bit of unhappiness, but I think people have come around to the idea,' Mullan says.
'I think everybody here accepts that it reflects the governance changes in the Act, and what the commissioners will do.'
Sign outside An Bord Pleanála's offices in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
The name, An Coimisiún Pleanála, reflects the fact that the 14 board members will now become planning commissioners, or Coimisinéirí Pleanála, and there will be nobody on the governing board deciding on planning cases.
This is not a rebrand, Mullan stresses.
'It's not that we fancied a new sign,' he says.
The new name reflects the change in governance.
'The main value within the staff of this organisation is integrity. That integrity existed in staff members before the governance failures and has come right through to the fore now,' Mullan says.
The impact
Will these changes to An Bord Pleanála's structure and governance have a big impact on how planning is done in Ireland?
'I don't think they're going to be transformative,' Gavin Lawlor, president of the Irish Planning Institute says.
'The changes are subtle, so there won't be any significant overt change. An Bord Pleanála is changing its name, there are governance changes in terms of how it operates and how it's structured, and it will have mandatory timelines imposed on decision making.'
Gavin Lawlor, president of the Irish Planning Institute. Photograph: Fennell Photography
The more significant reform around how planning is done in Ireland is contained in other sections of the Act.
'The objective of the Act is to provide more certainty around the timing of the outcomes of a planning application. Then on the plan-making side, it is to provide more detail, more certainty for the community as to what will happen in the future,' Lawlor says.
Local authority development plans will be extended to 10 years in duration, increasing certainty for developers and putting the focus on long-term, strategic planning.
These plans will have to align with the National Planning Framework (NPF), and the Minister for Housing James Browne has said he will be asking all local authorities to reopen their plans this year to ensure they comply with the revised NPF.
The development plans will also be guided by Urban Development Zones, which will be explicit on the height and density allowed in certain areas.
'It gives everybody a little bit more certainty around what they can expect to see when planning applications come in. What we want is a more plan-led system, a more prescriptive system, so less is left to chance,' Lawlor says.
The changes will not be swift, though.
'Within a year, the new Act will be in place, but then it takes time for those elements of the new Act to kick in, and to make meaningful difference,' says Lawlor.
He estimates that it will be 'probably three to five years' before any new development plans are in place and then another three years until the consequences are seen 'in terms of housing'.
'The Planning and Development Act was never going to be a short-term solution to the housing problem,' Lawlor says.
While slow-paced change is not exactly music to the Minister's ears – or to people trying to build, buy or rent their own home – it does appear to be a step in the right direction.
What will people notice in the changes with An Coimisiún Pleanála?
'I don't think John or Mary Citizen are going to notice anything really different other than the change in our name,' Mullan says.
'But the public are entitled to an efficient planning service, and that's what they're going to get from An Coimisiún Pleanála.'
Delivering an efficient planning service could be a much larger task than any one organisation can pull off.