An Bord Pleanβla has rejected criticism that it is holding up essential economic development or putting arbitrary obstacles in the way of those seeking to build housing in the countryside.
At a press briefing to mark the publication of its annual report for 2000, the board's chairman, Mr John O'Connor, said the board was "acutely conscious" of its responsibility to give priority to major infrastructural projects.
He noted that the number of cases determined last year was the highest since 1983. However, he also conceded that fewer than half of the 5,300 appeals lodged with the board during 2000 were determined within the statutory four-month period.
Mr O'Connor said he was confident that recruitment of additional planning inspectors, including many from overseas, and the appointment this week of new board members, would help to reduce the backlog of appeals.
He said the board had managed to meet the "extremely tight" deadline of 18 weeks, to reach decisions on major road, motorway and other infrastructural schemes, for which it acquired responsibility last January. In these cases, 43 public local inquiries had been held or scheduled for this year, with 35 cases determined to date.
Some large motorway schemes raised complex issues, necessitating breaches of the 18-week deadline to give them adequate consideration.
Mr O'Connor said all of the parties involved, including thousands of objectors in some cases, could be assured that An Bord Pleanβla would "act independently and make its decisions without fear or favour in accordance with the legislation".
On the question of planning appeal delays, the board had engaged the services of 49 planners - most of them from Britain - on a "fee-per-case" basis to dispose of smaller cases, and a further seven consultancy firms to deal with more complex appeals.
Three full-time planning inspectors from South Africa had been recruited to help deal with the backlog. In addition, membership of the board had been increased from nine to 12, following the appointment on Wednesday of three new members.
Two of the new board members, Mr Karl Kent and Ms Jane Doyle, had served for a number of years as senior planning inspectors and the third, Mr Brian Swift, from Waterford, was appointed on the nomination of the Local Authority Members Association.
Mr O'Connor also announced that Mr Brian Hunt, who had been an ordinary member of the board, was its new deputy chairman in succession to Ms Ann Quinn, who has retired after serving on the board since 1984, the year it was reconstituted.
As a result of these and other measures, he said the time taken by An Bord Pleanβla to determine appeals would "show an improvement", even if the volume of appeals stayed at its present level. If it fell, as seemed likely, the positive impact would be more marked.
Referring to the issue of housing in the countryside, on which the board's record of refusals has been criticised, Mr O'Connor said it had to take account of the relevant local authority's development plan and the National Sustainable Development Strategy.
He noted that this strategy, published by the Government in 1997, had stated clearly that there must be a presumption against urban-generated housing in rural areas. "This is national policy, to which the board is obliged to have regard," he said.
It was also "the clear intention of the Oireachtas", in enacting the 2000 Planning Act, to put sustainable development at the heart of the planning system.
"I am not aware of anyone who spoke against this concept at the time", Mr O'Connor said.
