The National Bus and Rail Union has called for the use of a statutory instrument to exempt bus garages from planning regulations.
The call comes as Dublin Bus has not been able to deploy a fleet of electric buses because it ran into difficulties over the installation of chargers at two depots.
Assistant General Secretary of the union Tom O'Connor said there should be an intervention.
Speaking to RTÉ's This Week, he said: "I would have thought the minister has the power to bring out a statutory instrument to exempt bus garages from planning regulations. And I Wouldn’t stop there, I mean the Navan rail line or the western rail corridor or any transport project should be exempt from the planning regime."
He said "it’s part of a tranche of 600 electric buses to replace the diesel buses over the next number of years" and that the union was made aware of "the issue over the planning" during the week.
Mr O’Connor said it could take months to rectify the issue.
He said: "The planner put in recommendations about the render and the roof type and about protecting the heritage of the structure of a wall up in Phibsborough.
"Not to be critical of the people or denigrate the people who protect our heritage but we’re in a climate emergency and I think common sense needs to take place.
"We’re not talking about the Brandenburg Gate or anything, we’re talking about a granite wall. We’re talking about electric buses that replace diesel buses that are putting carbon into the atmosphere."
Dublin Bus told the same programme that it was working with the planning authority to secure approval for its revised charging infrastructure.
There are nine electric buses in the depots which are being used for training and "to test the range to see how many times they’re going to have to swap these vehicles over".
He said drivers will need to learn how to drive them because "they are different in a number of ways".
Mr O'Connor said: "Firstly there’s no wing mirrors on them – so they have monitors inside the cab. That’s going to take a bit of getting used to because that’s a first for Dublin Bus.
Secondly, the off switches and the layout would be different so you’d need to get familiar with that.
He added: "But they have regenerative braking - anyone that has an electric car would know it's a different style of driving because when you take your foot off the throttle the regen brake kicks in to charge the battery."
