PlanningLeads
Briefs

What the planning record shows

The announcement is the least informative document in any big construction story. The filings underneath it are where the facts live. Briefs ground the news in Ireland’s public planning record - the applications, the timelines, the tells.

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By the numbers - live from the record

+3.3%
Building materials cost 3.3% more than a year ago.
CSO wholesale price index, all building & construction materials (Aug 2026).
15.5%
15.5% of homes in Leitrim lie vacant.
2,897 vacant dwellings (CSO Census 2022) - regeneration + acquisition territory.
30,555
30,555 new homes were commenced across Ireland in the last 12 months.
CSO residential commencement notices to 2026-08; Dublin led the country. Commencements precede completions by 12 to 24 months.
21.0%
New homes clear build cost by 21.0% in Dublin - but sell 18.4% below it in Monaghan.
Indicative build-vs-sell headroom (hard build cost only).
R.T. FitzgibbonData centresKildareEnergyRegulationStrategic infrastructure

Data centres in Ireland: the rules, the numbers and the Naas application under appeal

A six-hall, gas-supported data centre campus at Naas was granted by Kildare County Council in August 2025 and is now on appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála. The register shows what has been filed and decided, the official statistics show data centres used 23% of Ireland's metered electricity in 2025, and the two sides of the wider argument use different numbers to measure different things. PlanningLeads takes no position on the application.

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R.T. FitzgibbonSolarPublic procurementCompetition lawInstallers

Solar under the microscope: what the public record shows as the CCPC investigates bid-rigging

On 25 September 2026 the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission searched businesses in the solar panel industry over suspected bid-rigging. No business has been named, and a search is not a finding of wrongdoing. What the public record does show is the market being investigated: 56 solar tender notices from 37 public buyers since 2020, and 2,100 planning applications naming solar work in the last twelve months alone.

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Illustration: a miniature model of one house site in stages, from an excavator and open foundation trenches to a finished house with a lawn, a young native hedge on a boundary bank and new trees
R.T. FitzgibbonLandscapingGroundworksRural housingTrades

Ground first, green last: Ireland's landscaping and groundworks pipeline, as told by the planning register

Every build starts with a digger and ends with a planting plan. In the twelve months to September 2026 the planning register named landscaping on 5,057 applications and groundworks on 2,174, council by council and month by month, long before anyone was on site.

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Illustration: a miniature model of a semi-detached house with a timber-frame rear extension and a small dwelling going up in the back garden
R.T. FitzgibbonExempted developmentHousingRegulationsBuilding control

The first rewrite of Ireland's exemption rules in 25 years

Since 27 July 2026, a 45 m² rear extension and a 32 to 45 m² dwelling in the back garden can be built without planning permission. A whole tier of small residential projects now skips the planning register entirely - but it does not skip building control, and that is where the record keeps talking.

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Illustration: a miniature model of a large curved hospital with a roof garden and helipad, nearing completion among red-brick streets
R.T. FitzgibbonHealthDublinStrategic infrastructurePublic projects

The children's hospital, as told by its planning file

Ireland's most expensive building has generated a decade of headlines about money. Its planning file tells a quieter, stranger story: refused once for the skyline, granted in 2016 with 17 conditions - then altered eight times without a single change ever being ruled material.

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Illustration: a miniature model of a semiconductor campus under construction beside a river, with two cranes raising a new steel-framed hall
R.T. FitzgibbonSemiconductorsKildareIndustrialFDI

Intel's €5bn Leixlip investment: what the planning record actually shows

The €5bn programme was announced on 13 July. The paper trail at Kildare County Council started three and a half months earlier - and the single application on file tells you exactly what kind of investment this is.

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