Galway West Fianna Fail deputy Éamon Ó Cuív says he is shocked to find out that despite extra resources being allocated to An Bord Pleanála it is still failing to deal with even the current number of planning appeals coming in, not to mind clearing the backlog.
In the period from the 1st of January this year to the 31st of July 1200 new planning appeals were received by the Board, with only 1,000 dealt with.
With appeals outstanding back to 2020 this, he says, means that no impression is being made on the backlog of appeals even for appeals relating to single houses and refurbishments.
This is despite a statutory objective being in the law of deciding all appeals within a four month period.
The Deputy told Midwest News Editor Teresa O’Malley that it is now of critical importance that the promised new laws are enacted this Autumn that will put a statutory time limit on the time to decide planning appeals depending on their size:
