How long does planning permission take in Ireland?

Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, a local authority must make a decision on a valid planning application within eight weeks of receipt, during which time there is a five-week public observation period allowing anyone to make a submission on payment of the prescribed fee. If no further information is sought and no appeal is lodged, most straightforward domestic applications are decided within this eight-week window and become effective four weeks after the decision, once the appeal period has passed without an appeal.

The timeline extends significantly if the council issues a request for further information. The clock stops until you respond, and once you do, the council has a further period to make its decision, meaning an application that receives a further information request can easily take three to six months from submission to grant. Complex sites, environmental impact assessment requirements, or a high volume of third-party observations can add further time.

If a decision is appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála (formerly An Bord Pleanála), the statutory objective is to determine appeals within eighteen weeks, though in practice more complex or contentious cases regularly take longer than this target. Overall, a simple house extension with no objections might be permitted within two to three months of submission, while a contested or complicated rural house application could take the best part of a year once an appeal is factored in.