Victor Boyhan demands update on PlanIT rollout

Thank you and thank you Minister for Cummings for coming here today to discuss this commencement matter and it's sort of ironic that as our former Minister of State in your department Malcolm Noon takes the chair that it was actually he that responded to one of the last commencement matters last year in relation to it but at the very outset I want to say that I had a look yesterday since 2016 the amount of times I raised this matter and it's interesting there's a document that's still lucky I kept a few copies so when I was looking for an archive one a fresh hard copy I still have a few in my office but the action plan for housing and homelessness 216 forwarded by then Ender Kenny set out in in the document of course clear ambition and guidance for the delivery of a fully comprehensive IT suite of online portal interactive portal with the citizens all over the country I was on the housing committee from then on in I continued to monitor it so there's been a lack of real progress now to be fair you will appreciate we have a whole new planning and development bill since then but I again I looked at the estimates in relation to the Oireachtas grants and the funding that was sought and granted in relation to this particular project and I think that's another another point to take so look I'll be brief and concise as I can Minister because I recognize to be fair we have a new planning and development we've had a major comprehensive reform of our planning system so Commission Planola plays a critical role in the Irish planning system deciding on appeals of planning decisions made by local authorities and direct applications for major housing infrastructure and other categories of development historically incidents of failures in corporate governance and direction framed public debate and indeed public confidence around our planning system and indeed the then on board Planola thankfully and I want to put on the record that a new code of practice is in place which will guide and is guiding governance matters within Commission Planola my commencement of course was to ask the Minister to provide progress on the full rollout of Plan IT project to enable full citizen engagement and that's going to be my focus on the commentary from here on in I think it's important to fully enable the citizens to go online in relation to their engagement in the planning process for appeals and applications and other submissions online services enhanced portal and website functions should be available for all citizens from all parts of the country and I spoke to a number of councillors particularly rural communities where there was difficulties in this where citizens had difficulties in accessing it now clearly if you don't have IT competence there are issues but in terms of ready availability of coloured scan graphs some local authorities raising issues in relation to the capacity to scan accurately and with great clarity coloured graphs and photographs particularly in relation to protected structures and upload them onto the system so there are challenges I'm not going to knock it I want to accept there are challenges but we've got it we've got to address them access and participation in the planning system is important for all citizen engagement it is important to maximize the use of our new IT systems and online capabilities and technologies to support the Commission's operations and indeed the Planning Authority's operations and anyone who wants to interact in our planning process so Minister today I'm looking for an update on progress some assurances from you and that your department are satisfied that the Commission has sufficient resources to deliver its remit but particularly its remit into that and I want to say again and I hope it won't be necessary to put it in the pursue it in great detail there are serious concerns in relation to the ages of a number of bodies within departments in relation to the IT capacity but also the overrun and what we know from correspondence that I have on file there are a number of pilot projects costing very substantial amounts of money that haven't fully delivered and we may need to revisit particularly these areas in relation to a Commission Planola that costs the overruns the systems that were abandoned the systems that were abandoned halfway in the process there are challenges there there are concerns there may need to be a greater focus on that but look I'm here with you to listen to the update because clearly I don't know the full current progress and that's why I've asked you here today Minister thank you thank you thank you Senator for the opportunity to update the house on progress on the plan IT project in on board Panola now on Commission Planola your question is interesting based on the response that I have and you'll hear it in a moment on board Panola commenced an ICT strategy in 2013 The purpose of the strategy was to address the organisation's reliance on legacy systems. The PlanIT 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 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 and this 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 into the new CMS. At the conclusion of the initial five-year period, a suite of enhancements and system improvements were introduced. This was phase two of the project. Additional external expertise was publicly procured in 2019 to progress this phase and the board approved the renovation of the CMS using the 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 of Housing on progress. In April 2021, a new website was launched which facilitated online submissions and our observations, including associated fees for cases before the board. As is standard with all major ICT projects, a lessons learned review of plan IT was carried out in 2022 by an external consultant following a public procurement process. A director of transformation in digital service posts 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. On Commission's transformation and digital service units are currently working with the Office of Government Chief Information Office to develop online applications to provide the capability for the public to submit planning appeals online. Regulations were introduced last year, statutory instrument 540 of 2025, which specifically provide that appeals to our Commission can be made in electronic form. On Commission's plan all, it commenced a pilot of this system for online submissions of planning appeals towards the end of November of last year and the pilot ran throughout December and was open to the public. Pending some recent upgrades and further pilot testing, the system for online appeals is expected to go live during February of this year, which is obviously a hugely significant development. I hope that provides clarity. I know your question is asking about the IT system, which was completed five years ago and has been operational for eight years. Thank you. Well, my question is not that. My question, I read it again. The commencement matter to ask the Minister to provide progress. And in fairness, you've done that, Minister. That's the question. There's no ambiguity here. To ask the Minister to provide progress on the rollout of Plenal IT project to enable full citizens' engagement. That's simple. Two-line commencement matter. I do thank you for the update because of issues there I didn't know. You will know that, of course, I would have correspondence, which I'm happy to share back with the Department on Monday, in relation to being told by the Board. I did arrange to have a number of parliamentary questions asked through a network of TDs that I would work closely with. And we were told that there were possible legislative impediments and this was something that was holding back the Board from progressing its full IT suite. So, I think we need to look at that. I think it's very interesting that you share with us, and I want to thank you for that, the assessment or the lessons learnt report. So, clearly, I'd be looking to see a copy of that. I think that's important because I think we're here to improve the system, not to knock it. I want to acknowledge, and I'll finish on this, I want to acknowledge the major progress and the positivity within the Board and how it's addressing other issues, but that's for another day. My real focus here is the citizens, our city and county councillors, and the ability to fully interact to the maximum capacity that technology allows in an IT planning system that's fit for purpose and will assist all of us, particularly with the NDP, National Development Plan, infrastructural challenges. We want to encourage, you know this, you've been to the fore of all this yourself, Minister, and supportive of it. We want to encourage, not stymie or stop the interaction of our citizens fully to engage in our planning process. I want to do that. I know you want to do it, and that's why I was asking for this update. So, it is helpful. There are things here that I didn't know before, and I appreciate you bringing them to the table. Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Senator. Everyone is entitled to bring whatever they wish into this chamber. I hope I provided you with a clear update of the timelines and progress that has been made. And, of course, on Commission Planola, I want to continue to improve their digital services so that all customers can interact with it in an appropriate manner. I do want to also put on record my thanks to on Commission Planola for the very significant progress that they have made in turning around the organisation since the establishment of on Commission Planola. We now have a situation where all LRD applications for units of over 100 plus, every single one of them being disposed of within the statutory 16-week timeframe, which is completely transformational and is having a positive impact in terms of the delivery of housing across the country. And it is also important to put on record the significant work that has gone into bringing the cases on hand down from a high of over 3,600 a couple of years ago to approximately 1,300 last month. And I know the goal is to get that to 1,200. It will never be zero. You will always have applications in the system. But I know that they are working as an organisation to ensure that we have a modern, fit-for-purpose planning system that is meeting the current needs and is also addressing the deficits that were there in the backlog of applications. Thank you.