There has been a downward trend in the number of judicial reviews lodged against decisions made by the State's planning board, its CEO has told politicians.
Members of An Coimisiún Pleanála are appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage this afternoon to discuss the body's operations.
In his opening statement submitted to the committee, Chief Executive Peter Mullan said there had been a notable decrease in the amount of judicial reviews lodged in the latter half of 2025, a trend which continued into the first quarter of this year.
During 2025, 143 judicial reviews were lodged with the Central Office of the High Court that challenged the validity of 136 Commission decisions.
In his submission, Mr Mullan said: "While the total number of judicial reviews initiated in 2024 and 2025 are similar in number, there was a notable decrease in the latter half of 2025.
"85 new judicial reviews were initiated in January to June 2025, while 58 were initiated between July and December 2025.
"This downward trend has continued into 2026. As of 12 May 2026, 33 judicial reviews have been lodged with the Central Office."
He added that this was in comparison to 72 lodged in the comparable period last year.
In regards to 41 outcomes delivered so far in 2026, he said An Coimisiún Pleanála had won 13, lost three and conceded six.
A total of 17 were withdrawn and there were two no-fault disposals.
Mr Mullan said that of the 143 judicial reviews lodged in 2025, 81 were taken by third parties, 43 were taken by the applicant for development and 19 were taken by landowners.
Asked by Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne to explain what was behind the downward trend, Mr Mullan said that while there could be a number of elements, he believed that there were at least three contributing factors.
He said: "If this time last year I was appearing before the committee, we were seeing an exponential rise in the number of judicial reviews and halfway through the year we were certainly heading to 200 plus and an increase.
"Something happened in the second half of the year and I think there are a number of factors there."
"There's been better decision making, we won a number of very significant cases, there's been clarification from the High Court in relation to a number of matters as well and I think all of those combined have led to the decrease in the numbers overall," Mr Mullan explained.
Senator Aubrey McCarthy asked if judicial reviews had become a "natural process" of the planning process, and if this has led to the planning system no longer operating in a "robust, predictable manner".
Mr Mullan said Irish planning law was complex, but that he was hopeful that the downward trend in judicial reviews would continue.
"As you know, judicial review has become part of the appeal process and again I think that's, in inverted commas, a failure.
"I'm not questioning any right of the person doing the judicial review if they want to do that," he added.
Mr Mullan told Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin that the Commission's legal fees in 2024 were €12.6m compared to just under €11m in 2025.
"There has been almost a 40% drop in the cost of proceedings taken against us because we're having more success," he said.
