A legal anomaly which allows developers to get around objections by submitting two or more identical planning applications is being reviewed by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey.
The situation was brought to the attention of The Irish Times by a man in south Co Dublin who had successfully appealed to An Bord Pleanala against the granting of planning permission for a house which overlooked his. However, unknown to him, a second, identical application was made and granted and the house was built.
When planning permission was first sought for the house, which was built on a corner site in the large garden of the house owned by the developer, this man lodged an objection. Nonetheless, permission was granted by South Dublin County Council. The objector then appealed to An Bord Pleanala, which upheld his appeal.
However, while the appeal was being processed, the second, identical application was lodged. Because it was identical, the man who had previously objected did not realise that the notice of application posted on the site was a new one, relating to a separate application, so he did not object.
The council officials granted permission, as they had on the first occasion. The objector did not know this had happened until building work started, and by then it was too late to lodge another appeal with An Bord Pleanala.
"I paid £100 for an appeal and won," he told The Irish Times. "But it was a nonsense. Within a week, he lodged a second appeal. I had no way of knowing that the second appeal was in. There are no reference numbers on site notices, nor is there a requirement for one, so there is no way of knowing the second site notice was not the first."
He is critical of the planners in South Dublin County Council for processing the appeal without contacting him. "The planners were fully aware the application was under appeal. They were also aware that the second application was identical to the first. I can't believe they would let it go ahead without letting me know a second application was in."
Mr John Brown of South Dublin County Council's planning department agreed that this version of events was accurate. "A second similar application was made and granted while the appeal was in. We were not aware that An Bord Pleanala would uphold the appeal. No objection to this [second] application was received. New site notices and new newspaper notices were in place.
"We're obliged to consider an application within two months. The fact that an appeal was going to An Bord Pleanala is not a reason to defer it."
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment and Local Government said the Department was aware of instances of getting around planning objections in this way, and the Minister, Mr Dempsey, was reviewing this area of the legislation.