Minister for the Environment John Gormley yesterday approved proposals by An Bord Pleanála to introduce charges of €100,000 for critical infrastructure projects. The charges are to apply to applications for large-scale, public and private developments such as the proposed metro line, motorways and power plants.
Under the Strategic Infrastructure Act such applications may bypass local authority planners and go directly to the board. The aim is to reduce waiting times for decisions from several years to just six months.
The Construction Industry Federation criticised the fee, saying the industry is experiencing "significant cost pressures". Employers' group Ibec said while it wanted the cost to be clarified, "reaching a decision quicker and removing duplicated processes should benefit all involved".
The approval granted by Mr Gormley also covers significant rises in first-party appeals on unauthorised developments. Where such cases require an environmental impact statement (EIS), a fee of €9,000 applies.
The fee for first-party appeals of planning authority decisions on commercial developments will also increase, from €630 to €1,500 for non-EIS cases and €3,000 for cases where an EIS was part of the application.
Third-party appeals and referrals rise from €210 to €220. No change is proposed to the €50 fee for making submissions or observations on an appeal case. The same fee will apply to submissions made for strategic infrastructure development applications. The fee for oral hearing requests will be cut from €95 to €50.
