276. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of persons employed in planning roles in his Department. [54184/26]

My Department has a Planning Division which consists of 65 staff working across 6 Business Units. These staff comprise of a range of specialist planning grades and administrative grades.  High level detail on these business units activities can be found at: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/organisation-information/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage-who-does-what/

Other staff in the organisation are also contributing to the planning activities including in the Housing Activation Office, Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF) Unit, Heritage and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).