‘Balance of public interest’ has shifted on planning

The commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is behind schedule but gathering momentum, the Law Society has heard.

“We’re at about 20% commencement at present  and by the end of the year we’ll be almost half way,” public servant Paul Hogan told the Law Society Environmental and Planning Law conference 2025 (13 November).

Frustration

The head of the planning division at the Department of Housing acknowledged the “frustration” of working between the repealed Planning and Development Act 2000 and the yet to be fully commenced 2024 act.

“The sec general of the department often refers to changing your trousers while riding a bicycle,” he quipped.

“For me right now, it's riding two bicycles and changing your underpants.”

The implementation plan for the act includes a phased programme structuring the series of commencements, the regulations, and all the secondary legislation. 

The act is being implemented in four blocks, and there is also the ongoing element of judicial review. 

Oversight group

The full process is monitored by an oversight group, comprising key operators in the planning system – including An Coimisiún Pleanála, the OPR (Office of the Planning Regulator) and the local government sector.

The first block, the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála and other regulatory procedures related to the planning regulator and judicial review, is now complete.

“We pulled forward the judicial-review procedures, the chapter one of part nine provisions,” Hogan explained, “which was a good thing to do because they now apply to any decision made under the 2024 Act. They’re effective and ready to go.” 

Block two, which relates to policy and plans including the National Planning Framework and local development plans, is underway. 

Block three, an important element of the commencement level, will comprise the consenting procedures and processes, decision-making, housing strategies, and architectural heritage, and is targeted for Q1 2026,

Block four will cover remaining provisions – including costs and land acquisition. Commencement should be at 90% once block three has commenced.

“Part of the reason for the delay in commencing block two is so we can provide clarity around what triggers development-plan commencement,” he said.

Hogan added that another factor was that once the National Planning Framework was over the line in April, the Government prioritised the requirement that planning authorities vary their plans under the 2000 act. 

“They then had to move to a bigger housing requirement that had to be very quickly put into the system.”

Hogan said the best way to achieve that was to use the 2000 act’s established legislation procedures. 

Hogan told the conference that part 22, which relates to UDZs (Urban Development Zones), had also been commenced.

“We're keen to get that in place, to have planning authorities thinking about the future of large-scale housing,” he commented.

'Extremely concerned'

“Government is extremely concerned about how the balance of public interest may have shifted in relation to judicial review and access to justice,” Hogan said. 

Chapter two, part nine, of the act facilitates the introduction of a scale of fees and a financial-assistance mechanism.

This requires additional legislation that the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment will bring to government in the coming weeks. 

He went on to say that under the access-to-justice obligation, the legislation would require public consultation early in the new year.

“In the meantime,” he explained, “section 50b rules will continue to apply.”

Saying that unauthorised development needs to be addressed in the system rather than after the event, Hogan acknowledged that enforcement was a complex, costly issue.

It requires specialist skills and support that are challenging for local authorities when it comes to  large-scale breaches, such as in relation to quarries and peat extraction. 

Single-agency enforcement 

Section 356 introduces the possibility of a regional enforcement authority which would initially be through a local-authority shared service, graduating towards a single agency. 

The department has been investing resources in planning enforcement to help local authorities regulate the short-term letting sector.

It has not been as successful as intended.

Hogan told the conference, however, that a forthcoming EU directive on short-term lettings would free up resources that could then be directed to enforcement of illegal quarry activity and peat extraction.

Beef up Irish presence at EU planning level

He said that, in the context of a Government Action Plan, planning resources were “a really big issue”, not just domestically, but also in terms of the European Union, and there was a need to “beef up” the Irish presence there because of the move from directives to permitting.

He flagged two other legislative moves. 

The Department of Justice's Civil Law Reform Bill, he said, would apply to all civil law and bring forward some of the recommendations of the Peter Kelly review.

“They're intending to bring forward a general scheme by the end of the year.”

The Department of Expenditure Accelerating Infrastructure Task Force action plan is due in December.

Very firm actions

“That will include some very firm actions and very pointed actions in relation to regulatory reform, legal reform,” he explained.

“It will also seek to address the question of public acceptance. Because as we saw from earlier slides, people are very willing to see climate change and climate protection as a priority, but I think the caveat that was missing was ‘unless it affects them’.”

Full details of the roll out of the Planning and Development Act and its implementation can be found on the regularly updated website. 

• Keep reading Gazette.ie for further upcoming coverage of the Law Society Environmental and Planning Law conference 2025