A new system to improve the planning process for large housing developments has been approved by the Government.
The arrangements for large-scale residential developments (LSRDs) will replace the existing Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process.
Under the fresh plans, due to come into effect once legislation has been passed in the autumn, initial decision-making powers will be given back to local authorities.
Introduced in the 2016 planning act, the SHD process set-up streamlined arrangements to enable quicker decisions on planning applications for developments of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation or shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more.
The applications went directly to An Bord Pleanála for determination, cutting out the need for a decision at local authority level first.
But the system was bedevilled by a rash of legal challenges and lengthy delays and so the Government has now moved to end the process earlier than next February when it was due to expire.
October 29 will be the final day that developers can request a SHD pre-application consultation with An Bord Pleanála.
All SHD applications will then have to be submitted to the planning board by December 31 at the latest, if the developer completed the pre-application consultation process on or before October 29.
However, if they completed the process after October 29 developers will have until February 25 to submit a subsequent SHD planning application to the board.
Under the planned new LSRD process, planning authorities will be required to complete the final consultation meeting within eight weeks of a request.
They will also have to give a decision on LSRD planning applications within eight weeks of receiving them.
There will also be a 16 week mandatory timeframe for decisions on subsequent appeals to An Bord Pleanála, bringing the maximum possible duration of the process to 32 weeks.
LSRD developments will be very similar to that for an SHD, comprising developments of 100 housing units or more, or student accommodation developments comprising 200 bed spaces or more.
Both schemes will run concurrently for a period as the final applications under the SHD make their way through the system and the LSRD is set up.
Minister for Housing, Darragh O'Brien, welcomed the Government's decision, which he said would provide for planning applications for large scale residential developments to be dealt with in the first instance at the local level by local planning authorities.
The Irish Planning Institute (IPI) also welcomed the new measures.
"These new measures announced by Government represent an important and necessary step in rebalancing the Planning System in Ireland," said Dr Conor Norton, President of the IPI.
"Further measures will have to be looked at now as a matter of urgency to restore the balance between national, regional and local planning, and in particular the central role of the democratically-prepared City and County Development Plans and Local Area Plans in the planning consent process."
