A senior official of An Bord Pleanala has conceded that there are serious delays in dealing with planning appeals because of a huge increase in the number of cases going before the board.
The extra workload has meant that in the latest quarter up to May, only 60 per cent of the cases were processed within a four-month period compared with 98 per cent in 1995.
According to Diarmuid Collins, secretary of An Bord Pleanala, the situation has begun to improve following the appointment of two additional board members, bringing the total number to eight. The organisation is also in the process of recruiting extra inspectors. "We are hopeful that we will get the go-ahead from the Department shortly," said Mr Collins.
Mr Collins said that even in the current situation it was "extremely rare" for an appeal to take more than six months to determine. He pointed to the heavy increase in the organisation's workload. The number of appeals considered has risen steadily from 2,434 in 1994 to 2,874 in 1995 and 3,424 in 1996. Last year, the figure reached 3,927 and it is anticipated that around 4,300 appeals will be heard this year.
The board's target is to handle 95 per cent of appeals within four months of them being lodged. Mr Collins declined to say when this target would be met.
Within the construction and property industry there is growing concern about the delays being encountered at both initial planning and appeal stages.
According to leading quantity surveyor, Michael Webb of PKS, there has been a considerable increase in the number of requests from certain local authorities for additional information at the end of the two-month period for consideration of an application. This concern is shared by Pat Nolan, director of Hamilton Osborne King's building land division.
Ciaran Ryan, senior housing executive with the Construction Industry Federation, said a 16-yearold ministerial directive called on the local authorities to stop the practice of 11th-hour requests for information. A similar recommendation was made by the recent Strategic Review of the Construction Industry chaired by CRH Group chairman, Tony Barry.
In Mr Ryan's view, there is now a serious shortage of specialist planning personnel throughout the system. The number of technical people employed nationally in the field has fallen from 617 in 1992 to 537 in 1996, the latest year for which figures are available. There is a concern that extra staff may be secured for Bord Pleanala but at the expense of the local authorities in what amounts to "robbery of Peter to pay Paul".
Planning-fee income has been growing. Between 1995 and 1996, the amount collected in fees rose from £9.5m to £12m and recently the fee for a third-party appeal was raised from £100 to £120. With such resources flowing in, an extra 30 planners could be hired, according to Mr Ryan. Others suggest that the hiring of people on contracts might be the preferable solution.
Pat Nolan says fees could be increased to reduce the number of frivolous appeals. "The fee charged should be related to the scale of the development. As a result, objections to large developments would come generally from housing associations rather than from any person on every street corner."
Richard Barrett, a director of Treasury Holdings, claims that there is "excessive democracy" in the planning process. He believes that people from outside a particular local authority area should not be entitled to lodge a third-party objection except in special circumstances, such as where they live close to the border of the area in question.
According to Michael Webb, the timetable should be tightened. However, any attempt to restrict people's right to object would present difficulties, he believes.
John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, says it is worth noting that most European countries restrict third-party appeals to people with an interest in the site. Instead, there is much greater consultation of people at an early stage in the planning process.
Duirmuid Collins says the provisions on vexatious appeals " are not tight enough". He said less than one per cent of appeals were thrown out because they were vexatious. The figure for 1996 was 21.
However, in Ciaran Ryan's view, "it is very difficult to determine what is and is not vexatious". He agrees with Mr Graby that the "whole system must be looked at with a view to introducing much of what is best practice in other countries". It is worth noting that in some countries, public involvement is restricted to the development plan preparations stage.
Later this year, a major consolidation of planning legislation is due to be unveiled. At a time when development activity is running at record levels and when serious delays are leading to fast-growing price and rental levels, threatening Dublin's competitiveness as an international service centre, the debate on the future of planning administration has taken on a real urgency.
