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Paul Reid to chair An Coimisiún Pleanála

Former HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid is to chair the new national planning body An Coimisiún Pleanála.

The organisation formerly known as An Bord Pleanála will be re-established as An Coimisiún Pleanála today (18 June) after the commencement of part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024.

Former Law Society Director General Mary Keane is to be a member of the body’s governing board.

Housing Minister James Browne said that the move was not “simply renaming an existing body” but “a comprehensive organisational restructuring that will result in a modernised planning body”.

The new organisational structure for the planning body consists of three central pillars:

• Governing Board – chaired by Reid and responsible for the governance and performance of the organisation,
• Planning Commissioners – who will be responsible for all decision-making on appeals, applications, referrals and requests, and
• Corporate structure – led by Peter Mullen, the current full-time chair, who will become the new chief executive on commencement, with a strengthened management team and a revised organisational structure.

Backlog

The members of An Coimisiún Pleanála’s Governing Board are:

• Peter Dennehy (barrister and former chief officer of Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council),
• Anne Graham (former chief executive, National Transport Authority),
• Mary Keane (former Director General, Law Society, and current advisory board member with Tailte Éireann),
• Penelope Kenny (accountant and current chair of An Bord Pleanála Audit and Risk Committee),
• Peter Madden (senior business executive – including at Arnotts and international construction company Sammon Contracting), and
• Michael Moriarty (former board member of Rotunda Hospital).

Minister Browne said that additional resources allocated to planning had already led to a reduction in the historic backlog of cases facing the planning body.

The latest development focuses only on organisational improvements, and the Department of Housing says that further changes will be introduced over the coming months to reform and modernise the planning system.

It adds that, in the interim, all planning processes, decisions, and appeals will continue to operate under the Planning and Development Act 2000 until the remaining parts of the 2024 act are brought into effect.