Less than 20 per cent of Dublin City Council's planning budget is spent on combating planning violations despite the council having a backlog of more than 2,000 enforcement cases on its books.
A quarter of all breaches of the planning law in Dublin city which were detected in 2001 have yet to be resolved, either through prosecution or through correction by the offenders.
The council's planning enforcement section has become so overwhelmed by breaches since the introduction of the 2000 Planning and Development Act that it has amassed more than 2,000 unresolved cases.
However, the proportion of the 2006 planning budget allocated to the enforcement section, which conducts site inspections, handles complaints, processes all enforcement documents and attends court prosecutions is just 18.4 per cent.
"These are just paltry resources in the context of all the work that is involved," said Fine Gael councillor Lucinda Creighton.
"They don't have the staff to monitor what's happening and they don't have the resources to follow up on enforcement notices."
A large proportion of the remaining 80 per cent of the planning budget is dedicated to "pre-planning" advice, mainly directed towards assisting developers, she said.
"This has effectively allowed developers a free hand once planning permission is granted, without any threat of sanction."
Those found to have broken the planning laws can correct the offence by either removing the unauthorised construction or applying for retention permission.
Currently, 85 per cent of retention applications are granted by the council, providing little incentive to developers to follow the law and wait for planning permission to be granted before they start work.
The backlog of cases means that it could be several years before a developer has to worry about unauthorised structures, Ms Creighton said.
She is calling on the council to increase its enforcement budget to 40 per cent. "Enforcement is a critical aspect of proper planning," she said.
The council said that its enforcement budget for this year represented an increase of almost 5 per cent on last year.
"The budget is adequate to meet the needs of enforcement in the planning department's opinion," a spokesman said.
