Students Corner

Planning Permissions

Scope and Background

The Planning and Development Acts 1963 - 2000, impose certain requirements on builders, developers and all other persons who propose to build or develop and specifies that a planning permission must be obtained from the relevant Planning Authority.

Planning permission is also needed for development by the State, except where the consultation procedures provided for in the Local Government (Planning and Development) Acts obtain (e.g. national security, public safety or order, the administration of justice etc.). Local authority building (including housing) is exempt in the case where construction takes place in the Authoritities' own area. Therefore, works undertaken by a local authority outside its functional area come within the scope of the Acts, and need planning permission.
This series only provides coverage where development is subject to the requirement to obtain planning permission.

Coverage

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) collects data on a monthly basis from each local authority, town council and An Bord Pleanala in respect of each formal planning permission granted
Only final grants of permission or approvals are covered, i.e. only works which involve construction. The following permissions are excluded since they do not entail construction per se:

• Changes of a technical and business nature as distinct from a building or structural nature;
• Outline permission;
• Retention of an existing building;
• Changes to existing plan;
• Bye-law permission;
• Refusals - permissions subsequently granted on appeal by An Bord Pleanála are included.

Regions
The Local Government Act 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994, established eight new Regions. The CSO has adopted these in place of the old Planning Regions as the basis for the regional breakdown of planning permissions data.

Border
Midland
West
Dublin
Mid-East
Mid-West
South-East
South-West

Classification
Planning permissions are classified by type of development, local authority district and by regional authority. A distinction is made between residential and non-residential building and civil engineering.

Rounding
As the figures for floor areas have been rounded there may be slight discrepancies between the sum of the constituent items and the totals shown.