asked the Minister for the Environment the number of appeals currently lodged with An Bord Pleanála which have been awaiting a decision for (a) two months, (b) four months, (c) six months and (d) eight months or over.

An Board Pleanála indicate that information in the specific form requested is not available. However, an analysis of appeals on hands on 31 March 1980, by reference to date of receipt is as follows:

To obtain a proper understanding of the above figures it should be noted that there are various procedures and other factors outside the control of An Bord Pleanála which have a major impact on the time taken to deal with appeals. Some of these factors were outlined in the board's annual report for 1977 and include delays in submitting grounds of appeal, requests that appeals be held in abeyance, awaiting documents from planning authorities, circulation of documents to the various parties to an appeal, new issues arising in appeals and in some cases inadequate plans submitted with the original planning application.

In the first two years of their operation An Bord Pleanála made very good progress and were reducing progressively the float of appeals on hands. The postal dispute in 1979 was a severe set-back causing the number of appeals on hands to increase and the time taken to deal with many appeals to be extended. An Bord Pleanála have informed me that they are making every effort to speed up the processing of appeals and to reduce the numbers on hands.

Can the Minister of State indicate, either in aggregate form or for the four categories of time into which he has broken down my question, if he has information in relation to the delay as to whether the appeals in question are awaiting further information from (1) the local authority, (2) the appellants or (3) any third party appeal?

It is across the board, actually. It is the applicant; it is also the planning authority and there may also be a request in connection with an oral hearing.

Will the Minister undertake to issue a circular to all local authorities to try to speed up their response to requests for additional information from An Bord Pleanála? When an appeal is lodged the local authority are frequently asked to supply additional information or to submit their reasons as to why permission was or was not granted and in some instances this can cause delay as the appeal cannot be dealt with until that information comes in.

I have received no complaints from applicants in this regard but if it is desired that a county council or a local authority should be informed I have no objection to that.

9.