Laois planners issued 400 warning letters over illegal planning in 2025

Laois planners issued a total of 400 warning letters over illegal property developments in 2025, with their work "in a very challenging area" praised by the Laois County Council CEO.

The council paid almost €13,000 in legal fees, and referred ten planning cases to legal proceedings. They received almost €18,000 in fees from 29 retention applications after they took enforcement action, and also recouped nearly €10,000 in enforcement costs. They opened 131 new cases in 2025 after complaints were received about illegal planning activities. 

CEO Michael Rainey praised his staff, speaking at the December meeting in council headquarters in Portlaoise.

"There's huge numbers achieved this year. We are very lucky in this county we have a very strong pro development and supportive planning team. Despite a very challenging work area, on top of having to deal with a considerable number of applications, there was a really strong programme of work this year by planning," he said.

The number of planning applications and planning decisions in Laois jumped in 2025.

There were 906 planning applications made in 2025 up to the end of November, and 590 were deemed valid applications. That compared to 874 applications in 2024, with 543 valid applications.  Decisions were made on 551 applications in 2025, compared to 462 decisions in 2024.

The Laois planners gave approval to 510 plans, refusing 43 applications.  That compares to 443 approvals and 19 refusals in 2024. There were 35 planning decisions appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála, compared to 32 in 2024.

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More and more people are applying online, with 87.7% of applications up to the end of November. There were just 111 hard copy applications out of the total 906 received.