Homeowner guide
What planning permission actually costs in Ireland
Updated 2026-09-03 · checked against the sources below
Search for what planning permission costs in Ireland and you will be told EUR 34. That is the statutory fee for a single house under S.I. 149 of 2001, and it is true, and it is the smallest number in the whole exercise. The fee is what you pay the council to read the application. It is not what the application costs to produce, and it says nothing about the two costs that actually hurt: the months you wait, and the chance you are refused. This guide puts the whole bill in one place, separates the figures that are fixed in law from the ones that vary by the job, and finishes with what our own record of every Irish planning decision says about time and risk.
The statutory fee: fixed in law, and small
These are set by the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (S.I. 149/2001) and are the same in every local authority. They are payable whether or not permission is granted, and they are not refunded on a refusal.
- A single dwelling house: EUR 34.
- Other residential development: EUR 65 per dwelling unit, capped at EUR 38,000.
- Commercial and other buildings: EUR 3.60 per square metre of gross floor space, minimum EUR 102.
- Retention applications and outline permissions are charged at different rates - check the rate with your planning authority before you lodge.
The notices: a real cost people forget
Before you lodge, you must publish notice of the application in an approved newspaper circulating in the area, and erect a site notice on the land. Both are statutory requirements, not optional extras, and an application lodged without them is invalid.
The newspaper notice is priced by the newspaper, not by the State, so it varies by title and by the length of your description. Get the rate from the paper you intend to use before you budget for it: a long description in a national title costs multiples of a short one in a local paper.
Drawings and professional fees: the largest line, and the one nobody can quote you blind
For anything beyond the simplest application you will need scaled drawings - site layout, floor plans, elevations, sections - and in most cases someone to prepare and lodge the application: an architect, an architectural technologist, an engineer or a planning consultant.
We do not publish a price for this, because there is no honest single figure. It depends on the complexity of the site, whether a survey is needed, whether the design is bespoke, whether reports are required (engineering, ecology, traffic, flood risk, conservation), and on who you engage. Anyone quoting you a national average is guessing.
What we can tell you is how to make the quotes comparable. Ask each firm for a fixed fee covering: measured survey, design drawings, the planning application and lodgement, responses to any request for further information, and the compliance drawings if permission is granted. Requests for further information are where open-ended fee arrangements get expensive, and they are common.
Development contributions: payable on the grant, not the application
If permission is granted, most schemes attract a Section 48 development contribution - a levy the local authority charges toward public infrastructure. It is a condition of the permission, not part of the application fee, and it is frequently larger than every other cost in this guide combined.
Each authority sets its own rate per square metre in its own contribution scheme, so the figure depends entirely on where you are building. Residential rates are often in the region of EUR 100 per square metre, but that is a starting point for your own check, not a national figure. Exemptions and reductions vary by scheme - social housing and certain changes of use commonly attract them.
The two costs nobody quotes: the wait, and the risk
These are the costs that decide whether a project is worth starting, and no fee schedule contains them. We hold the public planning record for all 31 Irish local authorities, so we can measure them rather than estimate them.
Across 63,087 applications determined in the 24 months to September 2026, the median time from lodgement to decision was 55 days. That is the middle of the distribution and it is the number most people plan against. The tail is what catches projects out: one application in ten took more than 201 days. A request for further information is the usual reason, and it stops the statutory clock.
On outcome: of 50,561 applications actually determined as granted or refused in the same period, 6,128 were refused. That is a national refusal rate of 12.1 per cent - roughly one in eight. Every euro of professional fees is spent before you know which side of that you are on.
Refusal risk is not evenly spread. On the authorities determining at least 500 applications in that window it ranged from 4.6 per cent in Tipperary to 21.5 per cent in Kildare, with Fingal at 21.1 per cent and Wicklow at 17.4 per cent. Where you are building changes your odds by a factor of four, which is worth knowing before you commission drawings.
Putting it together
For a straightforward single-house application, the fixed and knowable costs are the EUR 34 fee and the notices. The variable costs - drawings, professional fees and, on a grant, the development contribution - are where the real money sits, and both depend on your site and your county.
The practical order is: check first whether you need permission at all, because exempted development costs nothing; get the statutory fee and the contribution rate for your own authority; then get two or three fixed-fee quotes on the same defined scope. Budget for the wait, and look at your county's refusal rate before you commit to a design that pushes the envelope.
Thinking about the wider works? Run the free Home Energy & Grant Report
Enter your address or Eircode and get every SEAI grant the property qualifies for, the deep-retrofit payback, and - only if you want them - quotes from registered installers.
Get my free reportUseful tools
Quick answers
How much does planning permission cost in Ireland?
The statutory application fee is EUR 34 for a single house, EUR 65 per unit (capped at EUR 38,000) for other residential schemes, and EUR 3.60 per square metre (minimum EUR 102) for commercial buildings, under S.I. 149/2001. The total cost is considerably higher once newspaper and site notices, drawings and professional fees are included, and a Section 48 development contribution is payable if permission is granted.
Is the planning application fee refunded if I am refused?
No. The fee pays for the authority's assessment and is payable whether or not permission is granted. Nationally, about one application in eight that reaches a determination is refused.
How long does planning permission take in Ireland?
Across 63,087 applications determined in the 24 months to September 2026, the median was 55 days from lodgement to decision. One in ten took more than 201 days, usually because a request for further information was issued.
What is a development contribution and when do I pay it?
A Section 48 levy toward public infrastructure, charged as a condition of a grant of permission rather than as part of the application fee. Each local authority sets its own rate per square metre in its contribution scheme, so the amount depends on where you are building.
Can I avoid the cost by not needing permission at all?
Often, yes. Exempted development needs no application and therefore no fee, notices or contribution. The exemption limits changed on 27 July 2026 - rear extensions rose to 45 square metres and new garden-room and dormer classes arrived - so it is worth checking the current rules before assuming you need permission.
Sources
Related
General guidance, not legal or planning advice. The regulations and your local authority's interpretation bind; conditions and local rules (protected structures, architectural conservation areas, flood zones) can change the answer for a specific property. When in doubt, ask your council for a Section 5 declaration or talk to a planning consultant.