The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne and the Minister of State for Planning, John Cummins welcomed Cabinet approval for priority drafting of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025. They plan to have the Bill enacted before the summer recess.

Due to this legislation developers would be able to seek extensions to planning permissions in cases where building work has been delayed by judicial review proceedings under plans for emergency legislation set to be considered by Cabinet.

The intention is for the legislation to be completed prior to the Dáil summer recess and there is a hope within Government that it could help to get thousands of units built.

The measure is a bid to activate developments such as large-scale apartments which might otherwise go beyond their permission timeline after being held up as a result of judicial reviews sought by opponents of the planned developments.

The move comes as the ESRI tell an Oireachtas committee that it does not expect any major increase in housing supply this year and next year. In its opening statement to the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, the ESRI is forecasting that just over 34,000 homes will be delivered in 2025 and 37,000 in 2026.

Minister for State for Local Government and Planning John Cummins said that “the decision by Cabinet is an important, practical and commonsense measure to ensure that sufficient time is given to activate planning permissions for much needed housing across the country”.

Mr Cummins said that it is “very much an activation measure”, with “terms and conditions” attached.

Minister Browne added, “This is about getting things moving and ensuring we don’t lose out on important developments due to the challenges the sector has faced in recent years. There is clear evidence that there are a number of permissions for housing that are due to expire shortly that have not yet been commenced and there have been calls for an extension to all current permissions.

“Indeed, there were over 40,000 un-commenced residential units on 265 wholly inactive development sites within Dublin. Of these, it is estimated that permission for around 15,000 of these units are due to expire within the next 2 years. Furthermore, just under 19,000 units over 52 sites have been subject to Judicial Review over the last 5 years. Of these, almost 15,800 units have been permitted but the duration of the permission has been eroded due to the review proceedings. A further 3,000 units remain in Judicial Review.

“Many permissions are due to expire or have been delayed due to Judicial Review proceedings – in either case, we have thousands of potential homes but a minimum time left to commence development.”

The Bill also provides for some amendments to the Planning Act of 2024 to clarify transitional arrangements as the planning system moves from operating under the Act of 2000 to the new Act. Following the approval of the Revised National Planning Framework 2025, which will facilitate the delivery of in excess of 50,000 additional housing units per annum, there is an urgent need to ensure that the updated housing requirements can be incorporated into the planning system as quickly as possible.

Local authorities will be required to update their current development plans over the coming months.

 

NB – This is a guide for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. If you have an issue requiring legal advice, please contact any of the team at Nolan Farrell & Goff LLP, whose numbers can be found on our website www.nfg.ie, or email info@nfg.ie.