Bill to stop clock on permissions during JRs
A judicial-review period will no longer to be counted as part of the life of a planning permission under proposed legislation approved by the Government today (27 May).
The Cabinet has approved the priority drafting of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025.
The Department of Housing says that it is hoped to have the bill enacted before the summer recess.
The proposed legislation would also enable an extension to permissions for housing development that are nearing the end of their duration period and have not yet started.
Three-year extension
Under the bill, developers of sites where work has not yet started will be able to apply for an extension of up to three years, but the permission holder must apply within six months of the bill commencing and start building within 18 months.
It would also allow for the provisions of section 180 of the new Planning and Development Act 2024 to retrospectively apply to permissions that have already been through – or are currently in – judicial review and are subsequently permitted.
This would allow for the duration of the judicial-review period to not be counted as part of the effective life of the planning permission, avoiding the expiry of planning permissions due to delays caused by the judicial-review process.
‘Getting things moving'
Minister for Housing James Browne said that the proposed change was about “getting things moving”, adding that there was “clear evidence” of several permissions for housing that were due to expire shortly but had not yet been commenced.
He said that there were over 40,000 residential units on 265 wholly inactive development sites within Dublin where work had not started.
“Of these, it is estimated that permission for around 15,000 of these units are due to expire within the next two years.
“Furthermore, just under 19,000 units over 52 sites have been subject to judicial review over the last five years,” he added.
While almost 15,800 of these have been permitted, the duration of the permission has been eroded due to the review proceedings.
A further 3,000 units remain in judicial review, according to the minister.
‘Substantially complete’
John Cummins (Minister of State for Planning) said that the bill would address the problem of permissions effectively lapsing because they did not have enough time left to start and become ‘substantially complete’ – the requirement for an extension under the current system.
The bill approved today also provides for some changes to the 2024 act to clarify transitional arrangements as the planning system moves from operating under the previous act of 2000.
These changes will allow local authorities’ development-plan variations that began under the 200 act to continue when the relevant provisions of the 2024 act are commenced, with a similar provision for the local-area plans that have been started under the previous act.