Ireland’s new Planning Records Act took effect on Friday, requiring councils to use publicly accessible evidence from the previous 30 years when assessing major projects near protected habitats. But where that evidence is missing, the law lets the applicant’s latest survey stand as the site’s baseline — a provision researchers say could erase decades of environmental change from planning decisions.
A study released by the Shannon Metropolitan University’s Planning Evidence Institute estimates that 9,600 hectares (23,700 acres) across 11 counties could be assessed using those present-day baselines. The researchers warn that this could make altered bogs, dunes and wetlands appear to be the natural starting point for future development.
The missing years in the file
The study examined 1,842 planning files from 19 county councils, then compared them with historical photographs held by public archives and private collections. In 46% of the files involving protected or proposed habitat zones, researchers found no publicly accessible image showing the site more than 10 years earlier.
Researchers identified visible changes in 72% of the cases with gaps, including drained peat, narrowed wetlands and dune vegetation lost to nearby construction. The study does not claim every change was caused by development, but says the missing records can prevent planners from distinguishing gradual damage from a site’s original condition.
If the record begins after the damage, the law asks the wrong question.
Benedikt Plank, study co-author
Ministers defend the deadline
Planning Minister Letícia Zamana said the act would make evidence easier to compare and stop decisions being delayed by disputes over old, inconsistent records. “The rule requires a clear standard, not a blank cheque,” she said, adding that councils could still commission archival searches where a site’s history was in doubt.
The study’s authors say that safeguard is too weak because councils have no extra budget or staff to search collections. Co-author Mária Kubiš said the new standard “turns absence into evidence”: unless an older photograph is found and submitted, the latest survey becomes the reference point.
Some of the most useful images are scattered across local history rooms, retired surveyors’ boxes and private collections, the researchers found. A set of bog photographs by the late Irish photographer Ainsley Adare, known for recording threatened rural terrain, helped researchers trace changes that were absent from council files.
Opposition planning spokesperson Olivia P. Halinen called for a six-month pause on the baseline provision, saying it could give developers “a cleaner starting line than the land deserves”. The government has rejected a suspension, but Zamana said councils would receive guidance next month on locating older images.
The act’s first decisions under the new standard are expected in December. Researchers recommend a publicly funded archive and a rule requiring councils to record when historic evidence is unavailable; without those changes, they say, the most altered sites may be the ones with the least visible past.
