Planning and Development Act 2024

• Permanent Page URL

Accounts, Audits and Annual Report of Office

565. (1) The Office shall—

(a) submit estimates of income and expenditure to the Minister in such form, in respect of such periods and at such times as may be specified by the Minister, and

(b) provide to the Minister any information which the Minister may require regarding those estimates and also regarding the proposals and plans of the Office in respect of a period specified by the Minister.

(2) The Office shall keep, in such form and in respect of such accounting periods as may be approved of by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, all proper and usual accounts of moneys received and spent by the Office, including an income and expenditure account and a balance sheet.

(3) The Planning Regulator and any member of the staff of the Office to whom duties relating to those accounts have been duly assigned shall, whenever so required by the Minister, permit any person appointed by the Minister to examine the accounts of the Office in respect of any financial year or other period and shall facilitate any such examination, and the Office shall pay to the Minister such fee for the examination as may be fixed by the Minister.

(4) The accounts of the Office shall be approved by the Planning Regulator as soon as is practicable (but not later than 3 months after the end of the accounting period to which they relate) and submitted by it to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit.

(5) A copy of the accounts and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on them shall be presented to the Planning Regulator and the Minister as soon as is practicable, and the Minister shall cause a copy of the accounts and report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(6) The Office shall, not later than the 30th day of June in each year, prepare an annual report, which shall include—

(a) information on the performance of its functions during the immediately preceding year,

(b) information about any matter to which section 549 relates,

(c) a statement of the names of the persons (if any) engaged pursuant to section 390 during the year to which the report relates, and

(d) information about such other matters as the Minister may specify to the Office in writing.

(7) The Planning Regulator shall submit a copy of the annual report to the Minister and the Minister shall, as soon as practicable thereafter, cause a copy to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and shall cause a copy to be sent to the relevant Oireachtas Committee.

(8) The Planning Regulator shall, at the request in writing of the relevant Oireachtas Committee, attend before it to account for matters in relation to its accounts and annual report.

(9) In this section “relevant Oireachtas Committee” means a Committee appointed by either House of the Oireachtas or jointly by both Houses of the Oireachtas to which has been duly assigned the role of examining matters relating to environment and planning (other than the Committee of Public Accounts or the Committee on Members’ Interests of Dáil Éireann or the Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Éireann) or a sub-committee of such a relevant Oireachtas Committee.