Planning enforcement staffing
Sorca Clarke warned that local planning departments were understaffed and asked which councils lacked full-time enforcement officers. The Taoiseach said he would seek the data and stressed that planning and enforcement sections must be properly staffed.
The Taoiseach's programme for Government makes over 50 distinct asks of local authorities across the country. This week, in Westmeath, our director of planning described staffing levels as the equivalent of a revolving door syndrome. At the same time, there has been a massive increase in complaints around unauthorised developments. This has the makings of an unmitigated disaster. Apparently, there are local authorities that do not have even one single planning enforcement officer. I have two questions. Which city and county councils have no full-time planning enforcement officers? Can the Taoiseach advise if the reported request from city and county councils for additional funding from Government for the hiring of 541 planning staff will be approved?
Comment on this
I do not have the data to hand, but I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, to come back to the Deputy with an answer on that within a week. I strongly believe that it is important that our planning departments are properly staffed.
This is so that they can grant planning permission to people who need to build homes and to build businesses and infrastructure. Our planning enforcement sections need to be properly staffed as well.