Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

Moving to a 50% recovery rate could lead to an income increase of
approximately €15 million overall, based on 2009 application levels. A
move to full cost recovery over a 5 year period, based on 2009 application
levels and existing processes, with an interim move to 75% cost recovery
after 3 years, would lead to additional income of €22 million after 3 years,
rising to €30 million after 5 years.
10.4.13 The Group is aware that a range of measures designed to facilitate the
move to e-planning at local authority level will be advanced during 2010:
• New regulations will be made in relation to e-planning;
• The Dublin City Council on-line application system is to be extended to
the other Dublin authorities and Wexford County Council (as they all
use the same IT system);
• The scope for, and challenges involved in, extending the Dublin City
Council on-line application system to other authorities in collaboration
with the LGMA is to be explored, as well as the scope for using
alternative on-line systems;
• It is intended that planning authorities will set up systems to accept online
submissions on planning applications (including electronic fee
payments) by the end of this year.
10.4.14 It is estimated that each electronic planning application submitted via the e-
Planning Portal in the UK can deliver potential savings of £122 for planning
authorities and £120 for applicants, rising to a total of £970 for large
applications.
10.4.15 Dublin City Council, which has put in place a pilot ePlanning project
enabling small-scale applications to be submitted electronically, is satisfied
that there are significant benefits for both itself and the public, arising from:
• Significant savings in the cost of scanning paper applications;
• The time taken to validate applications (which has been reduced on
average from 10 to 3 days);
• Savings by architects using the electronic process in the cost of
printing and posting 6 copies of applications, and the flexibility in being
able to lodge applications outside office hours (the system is available
24/7); and
• Faster access by third parties to current applications – files are put up
on the website 24 hours after registration.
10.4.16 Mayo County Council is also developing an innovative on-line inquiry
service for pre-application inquiries, and is running a pilot project, starting
with the on-line submission of third-party comments on current planning
applications. The results of this initiative should be replicable across many
other planning authorities.
10.4.17 The review of fees conducted by the Department in 2007 identified up to 50
manual transactions associated with the normal processing of a planning
application. The move to e-planning provides the scope to considerably
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