An Bord Pleanála is to get 24 more planners and other staff to cope with rapidly increasing planning appeals, which are expected to exceed 6,000 this year for the first time.
Meanwhile, the planning body and the Impact trade union will appear before the Labour Relations Commission today for pay negotiations. A management consultant has said that some Bord Pleanála staff, particularly planners, should get extra pay, though Impact has refused the board's first offer.
Yesterday, the board's chairman, John O'Connor, conceded that it "continued to experience difficulties in recruiting and retaining professional planners". Mr O'Connor and other senior board staff yesterday appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Local Government. A significant number of appeal applications are ruled out of order because of faulty paperwork, Mr O'Connor told Labour TD Eamon Gilmore.
However, he warned that the Planning and Development Act, 2000, laid down strict rules that had to be followed, or else the board would be leaving itself open to judicial review.
Paul Mullally, the board's chief planning officer, said it had produced information packs to help people ensure that applications were not ruled out on such grounds. Rejecting Green Party charges that it is seen now by some as an instrument of Government policy, Mr O'Connor said it had refused one National Roads Authority project and demanded changes to many others.
"I would be sorry to think that anything would interfere with the public's confidence in the board. It has built up a good reputation over the last 30 years," he said.
The number of appeals, said Mr O'Connor, reflected the pace of construction in the State, rather than any underlying increase in willingness to challenge planning permissions.
"The increase in planning activity appears to be due to a continuing strong trend in the number of housing schemes being proposed throughout the country, the time deadlines imposed on tax incentive developments," he said. In addition, the number of applications before An Bord Pleanála by property developers to build higher-density housing estates has jumped by 40 per cent.
Meanwhile, the board was strongly criticised by the Green Party for meeting in 2003 with executives from companies involved in the Corrib gas field.
Green Party TDs Éamon Ryan and Ciarán Cuffe repeatedly charged that the board had "compromised its independence" by the action.
The meeting took place in 2003 with Fergus Cahill, the chairman of the Irish Offshore Operators' Association, Andy Pyle of Shell, Fergal Murphy, Marathon International Petroleum Hibernia Ltd, and Leif Arne Hoyland of Statoil.
However, Mr O'Connor insisted that the board had not discussed the Corrib field with the delegation and that it had made it clear in advance that it would not do so.