Making a Planning Appeal Guide

What is an Appeal?

Generally, any person wanting to carry out development must apply for planning permission to their local planning authority (county council, city council, or city and county council).

The planning authority will make a decision on the application either to grant or to refuse planning permission. You can appeal this decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála

Who can Appeal?

If you made an application to the planning authority for a proposed development.
You are making a first party appeal.

A first party can appeal:

the planning authority’s decision to refuse permission;
any conditions the planning authority attaches to a grant of permission decision;
how a planning authority applies the terms of a Development Contribution Scheme or a Supplementary Development Contribution Scheme to conditions in a grant of permission.

If you made a submission to the planning authority on a proposed development.
You are making a third party appeal.

A third party can appeal:

the decision of the planning authority;
any conditions the planning authority attaches to a grant of permission decision.

How much time do I have to make an Appeal?

You must make your appeal within four weeks beginning on the date the planning authority makes its decision. This is a strict time limit.

The decision date is the date that the chief executive’s order is signed. This document may have been sent to you or will be available from the planning authority’s website. We must have your appeal by 5.30pm on the final day to make an appeal. If you have been granted leave to appeal by the Commission, there is a different time limit to make your appeal

Need help calculating the 4-week deadline?

You can use the calendar calculator on our website to find your exact final date.

What can you appeal?

Generally, after a planning authority makes a decision on an application, any participant in the application can make an appeal. Applicants can appeal all or part of the decision of the planning authority, and other participants can appeal the decision as long as they have an acknowledgement of their participation when the application was at the planning authority. There are some situations where you cannot make an appeal and these are listed below.
If you did not make submissions or observations on the application at the planning authority stage, it may still be possible to appeal the planning authority's decision if you are:

An organisation listed in the Planning and Development Regulations that was not notified of a planning application by the planning authority as required by law, or
An environmental protection group. However, you can only appeal if an environmental impact assessment report (EIAR, formerly EIS) was needed to be submitted with the application to the planning authority and was not submitted, or
An owner, occupier or somebody who has an interest in land which borders the site of a planning application. In this situation you can apply to An Coimisiún Pleanála for permission to make an appeal in a process called 'leave to appeal

In your leave to appeal application, the Commission decides if there are extenuating circumstances as to why you did not make a submission or observation to the planning authority and may grant or refuse you permission to make an appeal. Information on making a leave to appeal application is available from An Coimisiún Pleanála.

What you cannot appeal?

There are certain planning authority decisions which cannot be appealed. These are where the planning authority:

Decided the application is invalid.
Decided to grant permission after outline permission had been granted.
Refused permission because of past failures of a developer or a related person to comply with a previous permission and the High Court does not annul that decision.
Decided to grant or refuse permission to a proposed development located in a strategic development zone.
Refused to deal with a second planning application. If an application is being appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála, it is not permitted for a second application for the same development or a development of the same description to be made to the planning authority. If a dispute occurs as to whether or not an application is for the same development or a development of the same description, the matter can be referred to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Granted permission and attached conditions that require you to pay financial contributions under development contribution schemes or supplementary development contribution schemes.

You may still make an appeal if you believe that the planning authority has not applied properly the terms of a development contribution scheme or supplementary development contribution scheme, or the planning authority imposes a special contribution condition.

Appeals against the application of development contribution schemes

If there is an appeal only against a special contribution condition or the planning authority applying a contribution scheme, the inspector and Commission will only consider this financial part of the application and will not re-open the planning merits of the case. While the Commission considers this appeal, the planning authority can make the final grant of permission. However, the appellant must provide the planning authority security for payment of the full amount of the contribution or special contribution, as appropriate.

Other Appeals under the Planning and Devlopment Acts

It is also possible to appeal other matters such as:

The making of a draft planning scheme in a strategic development zone (SDZ).
A licensing decision for an appliance, apparatus, structure, cable or other matter on a public road.
Further information on other types of appeals is available on our Functions of the Commission page.

Options other than an appeal

If you did not participate at planning authority level and you do not qualify to make an appeal under the situations above, you can make your views known to the Commission as an observer in an observation. However, you can only make an observation if someone has made a valid appeal.

See our making an observation page for further information.