Free refusal-reasons report2020
Planning refusal reasons in Ireland, 2020
2,220 indexed Irish planning decisions analysed for 2020, with 301 refusals and the most common planner-cited refusal grounds.Coverage noteThese figures cover decisions whose public planner reports have been indexed and machine-read by PlanIntel. County cuts publish only after the county passes the extraction threshold; national pages show the currently analysed corpus, not every council in Ireland.Included in this page: Fingal (952), Wicklow (488), Carlow (310), Cavan (254), Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown (216).
2,220
decisions analysed301
refused14%
refusal rate652
refusal-reason signalsEvidence chart
Download chartTop refusal grounds
Planner-cited categories ranked by extracted reason signals for Ireland, 2020.Category counts
- Visual Amenity121
- Residential Amenity114
- Traffic Sightlines63
- Design62
- Other56
- Zoning Contravention51
- Rural Housing Need46
- Wastewater Percolation28
- Density18
- Ecology17
Year-by-year trend
- 202616 refused of 161 analysed decisions; 2 reason signals10%
- 202528 refused of 363 analysed decisions; 21 reason signals8%
- 202428 refused of 293 analysed decisions; 34 reason signals10%
- 202349 refused of 406 analysed decisions; 53 reason signals12%
- 202242 refused of 429 analysed decisions; 50 reason signals10%
- 2021116 refused of 951 analysed decisions; 245 reason signals12%
- 2020301 refused of 2,220 analysed decisions; 652 reason signals14%
- 201915 refused of 372 analysed decisions; 21 reason signals4%
- 201813 refused of 485 analysed decisions; 18 reason signals3%
- 201724 refused of 329 analysed decisions; 53 reason signals7%
Real refused examples
- F19A/0558Site area (518 sqm) significantly below 2000 sqm minimum for on-site treatment plant; insufficient separation distances.Decided 21 January 2020Wastewater Percolation
- F20A/0434Development gives rise to significant negative impact on residential amenity in terms of overbearing, overshadowing and overlooking.Decided 28 October 2020Residential Amenity
- F19A/0639Minimum requirements for public open space and playground provision not met. Public open space calculation erroneously includes Green Corridor contrary to Development Plan hierarchy. Play...Decided 19 August 2020Design
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