Fianna Fáil has called for Ireland's planning process to be "fit for purpose".

Mr Frank O'Rourke TD said the current planning process is a "long, drawn out process" and it needs to be addressed.

Deputy O'Rourke said: "The Government and Local Authorities should be focusing on making additional resources available to planning authorities to help reduce the overall timeline in the planning process. Resources should be targeted at the pre-planning stage to reduce the requests for further information. All parties should be aware of what they need to provide to planning authorities at the early stage of the process. This will help speed up the planning process while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the process.

-- Advertisement --

"An Bord Pleanála also needs to be adequately equipped to make speedy decisions when all of the information and facts are to hand. We need to make sure that backroom administrative delays that have arisen due to a lack of resources are not impacting on the planning process."

(CD/LM)