• Peter Mullan, chair of An Bord Pleanála, committed the state planning authority to achieving up to 80% of its statutory timelines in 2025
• An Bord Pleanála said it has significantly reduced the decision times on solar, wind and strategic housing in the last two years
• Gavin Lawlor, President of the Irish Planning Institute, said the commitment from ABP on decision timelines is very welcome

Thursday, 10 April 2025

Peter Mullan, chair of An Bord Pleanála, has said 2025 will be a “good year” for the Irish planning system, and committed to the state’s highest planning authority to meeting new statutory timelines under the new Planning and Development Act.

Speaking at the Irish Planning Institute’s annual conference in Salthill, Co Galway on Thursday, Mullan said An Bord Pleanála had mostly cleared its extra caseload over the past two years and now had the resources to effectively process cases within the expected timeframe. He added that the planning authority was a “transformed organisation” thanks to the increased staffing levels in recent years.

“One of the major decisions that was made by government back in 2023 was to resource An Bord Pleanála as a public sector organisation. We’ve seen an approximately 40%-plus increase in our staffing resources over that period, and that has made a considerable difference in the way we’ve been able to deal with our workload,” the chair of An Bord Pleanála told more than 400 planners gathered in Galway for the two-day annual conference.

“At any given stage, there will always be a caseload within the organisation of ballpark 1,200 cases. But in May 2023, we had three years of work at hand, which was 3,600 cases. And steadily throughout that period, we have steadily got through that caseload and we’re now back towards that magic number again of having about 1,200 cases. So shall we say the backload is almost cleared.” Mullan pointed to the Large-scale Residential Development (LRD) system, which he described as “hugely successful”.

“An Bord Pleanála has dealt with 64 LRD cases in the last 15 months. Every single one of those were decided within our statutory period, which is set at 16 weeks for a decision. Our average on all of those cases was just under 13 weeks, so that’s a success,” he said.

Mullan said An Bord Pleanála has committed to meeting a number of agreed timelines with the Department of Housing for different categories of planning decisions in 2025.

“For LRDs, we’re targeting between 95% and 100% compliance with the agreed timelines. And I’m hoping for 100%. Overall, we’re aiming for 70% to 80% compliance with our timeline targets, because once the new Planning and Development Act kicks in, there will be mandatory timelines and there will be consequences for the board for not meeting them,” he said.

“But we’re confident as a team in the board that we will be able to deliver on those timelines. Yes the livid experience for many planners has been delays over the past number of years, but what I’m saying to you now is that 2025 will be a good year for Irish planning.

“Now that An Bord Pleanála has been resourced as a public sector organisation, people are entitled to get the service from us as a public service organisation,” Mullan added.

Infrastructure

On larger infrastructure and renewable energy projects, Peter Mullan said decision timelines on cases have improved significantly over recent years, and committed to a 48-week statutory timeline for decisions on complex infrastructure cases.

“Timelines are improving on larger projects. In 2023, solar farms were typically taking 57 weeks for a decision. In the last quarter just gone, we’ve got that down to 28 weeks, and we think we can shave some more time off that down to about 26 weeks on average,” he said.

“Wind farm planning appeals are also improving dramatically. In 2023, an appeal averaged 111 weeks for a wind farm and that’s right down to 27 weeks now. And we’ve probably got room to shave some time off there as well.

“On large infrastructure projects, there’s an 18-week decision window under the current planning act, which is simply unrealistic. That’s why the new Act has mandated 48 weeks for Strategic Infrastructure projects. And we are confident we will be able to deliver the vast majority of large infrastructure cases within that 48 week window going forward.

“So I’m hoping that the historic problem of a project being “caught in the board”, which has been said for the last two or three years, that is something you will hear less and less of,” Mullan concluded.

Gavin Lawlor, President of the Irish Planning Institute, said the commitments made by An Bord Pleanála chair Peter Mullan was a welcome sign of progress.

“We very much welcome the progress being made in An Bord Pleanála and the chair’s commitments to our conference. It shows that if properly resourced planning will deliver quality outcomes in a timely and rigorous way, contrary to some commentary and demonstrating that planning and planners are not the problem,” Lawlor said.

ENDS

About the Irish Planning Institute

Founded in 1975, the Irish Planning Institute is the all-island professional body representing professional planners engaged in physical, spatial and environmental planning in Ireland and Irish planners practicing overseas.

The Irish Planning Institute, which celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year, represents over 1,000 planners across the public and private sector, including planners working in Local Authorities, Academia, An Bord Pleanála, Central Government, Regional Assemblies, Private Practice Consultancies, Property Developers and Semi-State organisations.