The Irish Planning Institute (IPI) has raised concerns about a growing shortage of planners in Ireland. The organisation is calling on the Government to prioritise commitments to support the training of more planners domestically and to attract skilled talent internationally.

IPI President Gavin Lawlor highlighted the unprecedented demand for planners and the negative impact an under-resourced profession has on infrastructure delivery, climate goals, and housing provision. He emphasised the need to address the skills shortage to meet the increasing challenges facing Ireland.

The IPI's Autumn Conference, held at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin, focused on the theme of 'Infrastructure and Planning.' The conference provided a platform for discussing the critical role of planners in shaping Ireland's future.

Commenting Gavin Lawlor, said: "Demand for planning professionals has risen sharply over recent years and it continues to grow. There are unfilled vacancies across the public, private and semi-state sectors and organisations are hiring planners where there's never been planners directly employed before. The sector also faces the prospect of a retirement cliff edge with many who helped implement the 2000 Act coming to the end of their careers.

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"It is vital that we train more planners here at home, get Irish qualified planners back and encourage planners who work internationally to come work in Ireland. For this to happen all of Government must recognise the urgency of the situation with planners being added to the Department of Enterprise's Critical Skills List and the Department of Public Expenditure adjusting their rules so prior international experience is recognised for new entrant public servants.

"The Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources must also be published and implemented as a priority in partnership with the Institute and those training and employing planners. The resourcing challenge can only be addressed by learning directly from the experiences of planning professionals who work across every area of the sector."

The IPI President also highlighted the poor infrastructure that exists in many communities across the country and the challenges that planners and policy makers face ensuring that our legislation and guidelines are fit to deliver the improvements the country needs.

He said: "With significant infrastructure deficits across a range of sectors including electricity, water and transport, the planning, development and delivery of critical projects is coming under increasing public and political scrutiny. This infrastructure is essential to allow us to maintain our competitiveness, protect our climate and deliver on our biodiversity aims, as well as delivering much needed housing.

"How we plan for infrastructure must change. For example, the forthcoming revised National Planning Framework should identify corridors for infrastructure, such as road, railways and powerlines, that should be preserved while considering constraints around biodiversity and sensitive landscapes.

"This also means publishing overdue updates to statutory planning guidelines affecting everything from wind energy (which date from 2006) and to childcare infrastructure (last updated in 2001).

"Only by addressing these gaps and the resourcing issue can planners get back to doing what we should be doing, planning new infrastructure, tackling climate change and the biodiversity crisis and focusing on good design and outcomes."