What is a pre-planning consultation and is it worth having?

How it works in Ireland

Section 247 of the 2000 Act provides for consultation between the council and someone who intends to apply. In practice it is a short meeting with a planner, often by appointment online or at the council offices. It is not a required step, and councils decide how they run it.

The point is to catch problems before you spend on full drawings. On a rural site the questions that matter most are whether your connection to the area meets the council’s local need policy, whether the site is in a landscape or flood area the plan restricts, whether the entrance can get safe sightlines, and whether the plot can take a wastewater system.

Come with a location map, a rough site layout, a short description of the house, and your evidence of connection to the area. Ask what the council expects to see, what it would likely attach as conditions, and whether it already has a view on the site. Ask also whether it would want a site characterisation in the application, since the result decides what the house can be.

Write up the meeting the same day and, if you can, send it to the planner to confirm. Councils usually say that advice at a meeting is informal and does not bind the decision. A different planner may handle your application, and a submission from a neighbour can change the picture. Still, a recorded steer is useful: it lets you answer an unexpected objection in your reply and can be shown to your designer, who will price the design with real constraints.

Some councils limit who can book, or ask for a form with drawings in advance. Check the council’s planning pages. A county that insists on a written enquiry rather than a meeting is still giving a section 247 consultation.

A consultation does not replace a site visit by your designer, a site assessment by a qualified assessor or a conversation with the owner of any land you need to cross. It narrows the risk; it does not remove it.

A common mistake

Treating the meeting as a promise. “The planner seemed happy” is not a grant. Take the advice as a list of things to design for, keep the note, and still expect the formal process to raise points that were not mentioned.