Planning Permissions

Scope and Background

Details of the scope and background of this series were given in the March 1973 Statistical Bulletin. The Planning and Development Acts 1963 - 2000, imposes 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.

Local authority building (including housing) is exempt in the case where construction takes place in the Authorities’ own area. Therefore, works undertaken by a local authority outside its functional area come within the scope of the Acts, and need planning permission. Planning permission is also needed for development by the State, except where the consultation procedures provided for in the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1993 obtain (e.g. national security, public safety or order, the administration of justice etc). This series only provides coverage where development is subject to the requirement to obtain planning permission.

This series is also available using the interactive tables in PxStat on the CSO website. 

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. 

Type (TY):

1       New Development.

2       Extension.

3       Alteration & Renovation - No floor areas required (FA = 0).

4       Conversion / Change of Use - No floor areas required (FA = 0). 

Coverage

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.  

Rounding

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

Estimates are included where complete details of floor area size are not available.  

NUTS2 and NUTS3 Regions

The regional classifications in this release are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) classification used by Eurostat. The classification was drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. In 2003, the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003).
Revisions were made to the NUTS boundaries in 2016 and were given legal status under Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/2066 amending annexes to NUTS Regulation 1059/2003. Under this revision the NUTS 2 Regions comprise the Regional Assemblies established under the Local Government Act 1991 (Regional Assemblies) (Establishment) Order 2014 (SI No. 573 of 2014). The NUTS 3 Regions are groupings of 31 administrative counties, and nest into the NUTS 2 Regions.

Strategic Housing Development Planning Applications 

Planning applications for housing developments of more than 100 residential units and 200 plus student bed spaces can now be made directly to An Bord Pleanála. New legislation which allows for this type of application was enacted on 19th December 2016 and the associated regulations come into effect on 3rd July 2017. This new type of application has been introduced as part of Rebuilding Ireland to speed up the planning application process and accelerate delivery of larger housing and student accommodation proposals. For more information see An Bord Pleanala website

Large-Scale Residential Development Planning Applications

The Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process expired on 25 February 2022. Its successor, the Large-Scale Residential Development (LRD) scheme came into effect on 17 December 2021. Under the new process, decision making for LRDs returns to the local planning authority in the first instance. Decisions taken by the local planning authority can then be appealed to An Bord Pleanála. The LRD legislation is largely similar to the SHD scheme but with two main changes to the definition of LRDs:

• The LRD scheme allows for 30% of the gross floor space of the proposed development to be for non-residential uses compared to 15% of gross floor space allowance for SHDs.
• Mixed developments combining housing and student accommodation are to be classified as an LRD where either the planned development contains greater than 100 housing units or student accommodation with more than 200 bed spaces.

For more information, please see Irish Statute Book website.

The CSO's release on planning permissions does not differentiate between SHDs and LRDs.

Comparison with other national series

There are differences (due to coverage, timing, definitions and other factors) between the planning permissions statistics produced by the CSO and those of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (DHPCLG), resulting in different but complementary sets of data aimed at meeting the needs of different users.

The planning permissions statistics produced by the DHPCLG focus on the overall process of the planning permissions system.  For example, it provides data for each planning authority on invalid applications received, applications for outline and full permission, decisions to grant /refuse permission, decisions issued within the statutory eight-week period, decisions deferred. Percentages for decisions are provided.

By contrast, the planning permissions statistics published by the CSO provide a detailed breakdown of certain outputs of the planning process (number of planning permissions granted with the number of units, functional description, and their floor areas).  Only final grants of permission for works which involve construction are covered. Refusals, retentions and outline permissions, for example, are excluded.  See under the heading Coverage above for a full list of exclusions.

The example of an application for a shopping centre with a car park illustrates how different approaches can result in a different total for the number of planning permissions granted. The CSO statistics include a breakdown into types of planning permission received and would therefore treat the case as an application for two permissions, one for a shopping centre and one for a car park. Where the statistics compiled do not involve such a breakdown, as is the case with the DHPCLG, the application would be treated as one for a single permission.

The purpose of the CSO Planning Permissions Statistics is to provide a short-term indicator on construction.  It aims to provide data enabling some prediction of or insight into the amount of building activity about to take place in the State.