With the shutdown of construction sites and majority of Ireland’s working population restricted to home, you would be forgiven for thinking the planning system was also on hiatus.  Thankfully for the post-Covid economic recovery, this is not the case. 

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy T.D. has made several sensible amendments to the Planning Act and Regulations in the last few weeks.  These are designed to ease pressure, where possible, on businesses and planning authorities.  At the heart of these provisions is the key message that the planning system should remain open for business.  Not quite business as usual but certainly, open for business. 

Some of these are now in effect but one major provision has been kept in reserve.  That is Eoghan Murphy’s new power to trigger a freeze on all planning time-limits in the future.  We hope this is not triggered as it would signify a significant deterioration in the public health emergency.

For now, Eoghan Murphy T.D. has implemented important supports through the planning system for the business and health sectors.  Planning permission is not now required for the temporary use of land or buildings for health facilities.  We have seen one major example of this in use at the Citywest Hotel.  Temporary change of use of cafes and restaurants to take-away facilities is now permitted.  Restrictions on the operational and delivery hours for retail and supply chain business have been lifted during the period of emergency.    

In addition, all planning decision time periods have been extended by 23 days.  This has the effect of extending the normal eight week decision period to eleven weeks and two days.  The 23 day decision extension was to reflect the period up to Easter Sunday, during which time people had been asked to stay at home.  A further extension of planning decision time periods seems inevitable given the public has been asked to stay at home for an additional three weeks.

Clearly planning and construction pale in comparison to delivery of health and essential retail services.  It is also true to say that the economic impact of crisis will take a toll on people’s mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.  It is therefore essential that the economy can be supported where it does not exacerbate the impact on the healthcare sector. 

To their immense credit, planning officers and support staff continue to keep the planning system functioning.  New planning applications and appeals can continue to be submitted and considered.  Engagement with planning authorities is ongoing through principally electronic means.  Despite this, the planning system is not exploiting the electronic tools available to it. 

I started my planning career in England where planning application and appeal submissions have been made electronically for more than a decade.  There are significant efficiency gains for all involved when the process is an electronic one.  Returning to work in Ireland and submitting up to ten hard copies of planning application documents seemed such an unnecessary use of time, personal, and natural resources.

The majority of people reading this are now working from home.  You are conducting business and delivering services through electronic means.  It would be alien to delay a work task while you waited for a document to arrive to you in the post.  Particularly when that document was easily available electronically.  

If Covid-19 will remain with us until a vaccine is developed, we need to mitigate its impact and the impact of similar healthcare emergencies.  We should give planning authorities the tools they need to operate electronically.  The Government has been working on the delivery of an e-Planning system since 2016.  Once this crisis abates, we simply cannot delay the delivery of a modern e-Planning system any further.

Raymond Tutty is Head of Planning at Savills Ireland