CAIRN HOMES’ BOSS has said 10,000 to 15,000 planning approvals are at risk of lapsing and has called for emergency legislation to be introduced by government. 

Michael Stanley, the CEO of one of the country’s largest property developers, said this week that a number of local authorities are “allowing planning permissions to lapse”. 

“We’re facing about 10 to 15,000 planning approvals, fully approved items, that have gone through the system” lapsing, he told a the Construction Industry Federation and Irish Home Builders’ Association housing summit on Tuesday. 

These planning permissions aim to deliver thousands of homes, but there is a risk of the developments going back to square one in the process. 

Planning permissions, which are not implemented within a certain time period, generally five years, are at risk of lapsing if an extension isn’t granted. 

Fully approved planning permissions, that have been held up in delays caused by appeals such as judicial reviews and that have already gone through the planning system, should be given an automatic two-year extension, Stanley argued.

“Overnight you could do that,” he said. 

“The ones that have got through need to be protected,” he said, which was greeted by applause at the conference this week. 

Ministerial order

That practice of allowing permissions to lapse “could be stopped”, Stanley said. 

He called on the government to prevent the lapsing of planning permissions for sites through emergency legislation or through a ministerial order.

“The new government, the new [housing] minister [or] Micheál Martin could make immediate changes to how the current planning system is interpreted,” he said, stating that many attending the conference “will understand the technical issues that we are dealing with”. 

The government’s new Planning Act, one of the largest pieces of legislation in the history of the State, was designed to speed up the planning process, but Stanley said it will take at least 18 months to get up and running.

While the Minister for Housing James Browne and his department are working to deliver the new housing plan by the summer, Stanley said the government needs to be “a lot more proactive” if the 30,330 housing figures delivered last year are to be improved upon.

It’s understood the issue raised by the Cairn boss would fall to Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, John Cummins.

Government sources have said they are acutely aware of the issue and will look at what can possibly be done to assist. Any move would have to be legally robust, they said. 

A statement from the Department of Housing said the standard period for the completion of a planning permission is five years under the current provisions in the Planning and Development Act 2000.

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Permission for an extension can be granted for up to two extensions provided it does not exceed five years, but the extension will only be granted if development has commenced on site and substantial works have been carried out, which is not often the case when it comes to judicial reviews holding up commencement. 

The new Planning and Development Act 2024 does include a transitional measure to allow for extensions to the duration of planning permissions for a period of three years, but this only kicks in from the date of the enactment of the 2024 Act. 

Government sources said there are, of course, concerns about sites with planning permissions not being utilised, which is why the new land hoarding tax, called the Residential Zoned Land Tax, was introduced. It applies to sites that have been identified as zoned for housing, but has been left lying idle for at least three years.

A number of developers have previously argued they should not be liable for the tax as the delays in the developing the site in some cases comes down to delays caused by third parties.