Darragh O'Brien

The Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021 has passed all stages in the Dáil and Seanad and will now go to the president for signature.

The bill aims to continue to expedite the delivery of new housing in the public and private sectors while restoring decision-making powers to local authorities in the first instance.

Some elements of the SHD arrangements will remain in order to provide certainty and stability to the construction sectors, such as mandatory pre-application consultation, quality of applications submitted and decision timelines.

The new three-stage process involves an eight-week consultation phase with the local authority, followed by a standard application to the planning authority with a mandatory eight-week decision timeframe, and a final appeal stage where the decision may be appealed to An Bord Pleanála with a mandatory 16-week decision timeframe.

There will be a transition period from the SHD arrangements to the new LRD arrangements, with both planning consent schemes operating concurrently for a limited period as developers already in the SHD system will be able to continue to decision-making stage.

Housing minister Darragh O’Brien said: “These are very important changes which restore the primary decision-making function to local authorities, while retaining some of the positive elements of the strategic housing development arrangements such as mandatory pre-application consultation, quality of applications submitted and decision timelines.

“At the same time, the large-scale residential developments arrangements will also allow for enhanced public participation through the restoration of the appeal mechanism to the Board.”