I received a letter last week from a developer in Galway city and I believe it was a copy of a letter he had sent to the Taoiseach regarding An Bord Pleanála. He submitted an application for planning under the strategic housing development forum back in August 2022. The inspector prepared his report on the application, submitted it to the board in January 2023, and here we are in February 2024 and the board has still not made a decision. This is a development of 170 houses and the developer wants to know if An Bord Pleanála will make a decision on it one way or the other. He is not asking us to influence the board. The more appalling thing is that there are 21,500 houses stuck in that logjam in An Bord Pleanála at the moment. I know we have given increased resources to An Bord Pleanála but it is not enough. It needs more and it needs it now if we are to try to get through what is stuck in this system as quickly as possible.

I thank the Deputy. There are delays in An Bord Pleanála at the moment and that is particularly the case with SHDs. Some of that is linked to a court case, the outcome of which the board needed to know before it could decide on these applications. I met with the new chairperson of An Bord Pleanála about this and with the Minister. The board is getting the additional resources and staff it needs but it will take a bit of time to get through the backlog. Having met with An Bord Pleanála, I am now confident the backlog is now already coming down and will be resolved.