PlanningLeads
Measured, not estimated

How long planning takes, and how often it is refused

Decision times and refusal rates for every Irish planning authority, taken from the full public planning record over the last 24 months. Where you build changes your odds, and nobody else publishes this.

55 days
Median time to a decision
lodgement to decision
202 days
Slowest tenth take longer than
usually a request for further information
12.1%
National refusal rate
6,128 of 50,561 determined
31
Authorities measured
last 24 months
Planning authorityDeterminedRefusedRefusal rateMedian days
Kildare County Council1,85539821.5%62
Fingal County Council2,55053921.1%54
Louth County Council1,32524218.3%52
Galway City Council5019018%55
Wicklow County Council1,60127817.4%54
Longford County Council4467416.6%50
Wexford County Council2,54841116.1%54
Galway County Council3,04647215.5%55
Meath County Council2,11832715.4%55
Westmeath County Council89112814.4%57
Roscommon County Council80611314%100
Kerry County Council2,01427313.6%63
Waterford City and County Council1,23416213.1%55
Limerick City and County Council2,06025912.6%61
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council2,57529611.5%52
Cork County Council3,50937110.6%63
Offaly County Council8098610.6%65
Carlow County Council5875910.1%74
Dublin City Council3,4083239.5%55
South Dublin County Council1,7411619.2%50
Kilkenny County Council1,3081098.3%63
Laois County Council989818.2%55
Mayo County Council1,8931548.1%60
Sligo County Council753618.1%52
Monaghan County Council802627.7%97
Clare County Council1,7841357.6%55
Donegal County Council3,5052567.3%50
Cork City Council667446.6%60
Cavan County Council990626.3%58
Tipperary County Council1,843844.6%55
Leitrim County Council403184.5%53

Determined applications only (granted or refused). Decision time is the median days from lodgement to decision; authorities with fewer than 100 determinations in the window are omitted.

How this is measured

  • • Determined applications only. An application counts once it is granted or refused. Withdrawn, invalid and still-open applications are excluded, because a refusal rate that counts them measures administration rather than planning outcomes.
  • • Decision time is a median, not an average. A handful of multi-year cases would drag a mean upward and describe nobody's experience. Lags beyond two years, and any decision dated before its own lodgement, are treated as source errors and excluded from the timing figure only.
  • • Authorities with fewer than 100 determinations in the window are omitted rather than published with a rate a few decisions could swing.
  • • Source: the statutory public planning registers of all 31 Irish local authorities, refreshed weekly. Aggregate figures only, no personal data.

Related

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