The forthcoming Planning and Development Act will be only the third piece of general planning legislation since the founding of the State. Much has changed since then.
The Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1963 contained 92 sections. The Planning and Development Act 2000 will probably (subject to last minute amendment) end its life with 518 sections. The latest version of the Planning Bill (it will not be the last) has 590 sections.
Although the 2016 Organisational Review of An Bord Pleanála called for a review of the 2000 Act, the first commitment to review planning legislation was contained in the Government’s housing strategy to 2030, Housing for All, in September 2021.
The Review commenced almost immediately and a first draft of a Bill was published in January 2023 with a final (substantively different) draft approved by Cabinet in October 2023. The Bill was initiated in the Dáil in November last year and is presently awaiting Report Stage in the Seanad with enactment expected in September or October this year.
Unlike numerous Acts since 2000, the new Act will not amend the 2000 Act. The new Act will completely repeal and replace the 2000 Act.
The present version of the Bill comprises 25 Parts, 6 Schedules, 590 sections (some very long) and 747 pages. The Bill refers to 93 other Acts, the oldest being the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act of 1845. The Act and its implications are very complex.
The Government states that the 2000 Act has been completely reviewed in order to produce legislation with the capacity to deliver key infrastructure in housing, transport and renewable energy. Key reforms are said to be;
- improved alignment between national and local plans through an integrated hierarchy of plan-making
- a reformed and renamed An Coimisiún Pleanála
- ten year Development Plans (from the present six year term)
- reform of planning Judicial Review
- new Urban Development Zones to improve strategic planning in key growth areas
Subject to presently unforeseen legal or poliical developments, the Bill will be passed in September or October. It will likely be brought into effect in stages after then as new Regulations and Guidance become available.
New planning legislation has now been introduced on two occasions because what went before had become “disparate, unwieldy and extremely difficult to locate or follow” (McKechnie J, Sweetman v An Bord Pleanála (McQuaid/Ballysax Quarries) [2020] IESC 39, para 5). Arguably, the Planning Bill shares all of these characteristics even before it is passed. In just a few weeks time will we simply start a new cycle of ever more complex planning legislation?
Watch this space.