State Bodies Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-22 ============================================================ John Cummins (FG), Waterford I thank the Senator for the opportunity to update the House on progress with on the Plean-IT project in An Bord Pleanála, now An Coimisiún Pleanála. The Senator's question is interesting, based on the response I have, and he will hear it now. An Bord Pleanála commenced an ICT strategy in 2013. The purpose of the strategy was to address the organisation’s reliance on legacy systems. The Plean-IT programme was initiated in 2014 to implement this strategy. An external consulting firm was appointed following a public procurement process to carry out a feasibility study to assist in making a business case for the project. The business case was for three elements: a new case management system, geographical information systems, GIS, and a new website and portal. The project was projected to take five years, from 2014 to 2019. A further public procurement process led to an external IT company being appointed to develop the selected CMS development. This development commenced in 2016, and the CMS went live in October 2017. The GIS element of the project also went live during 2017 and was integrated with the new CMS. At the conclusion of the initial five-year period, a suite of enhancements and system improvements were introduced. This was the second phase of the project. Additional external expertise was publicly procured in 2019 to progress this phase. The board approved the renovation of the CMS using an internal team led by a new project manager and business analyst. The system has now been operational for eight years in total. Throughout the implementation period, the board reported regularly to the Minister for housing on progress. In April 2021, a new website was launched which facilitated online submissions and-or observations, including associated fees for cases before the board. As is standard with all major ICT projects, a lessons learnt review of Plean-IT was carried out in 2022 by an external consultant following a public procurement process. A director of transformation and digital services post was sanctioned following the ministerial action plan and the Office of the Planning Regulator report of 2022 to head up the next development phase of the board's ICT strategy. An Coimisiún Pleanála's transformation and digital services units are working with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer to develop online applications to provide the capability for the public to submit planning appeals online. Regulations were introduced last year, and SI 540 of 2025 specifically provides that appeals to An Coimisiún Pleanála can be made in electronic form. An Coimisiún Pleanála commenced a pilot of the system for online submission of planning appeals towards the end of November. This pilot ran throughout December 2025 and was open to the public. Pending some recent upgrades and further testing, the system for online appeals is expected to go live during February 2026, which is obviously a significant development. I hope this provides clarity. Senator Boyhan's question asks about the IT system, which was completed five years ago and which has been operational for eight years. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-22