How to Search Planning Applications in Ireland: 3 Registers

Short answer: Every Irish council publishes its planning register online, and there are three doors into it. The national planning applications map shows every council’s applications on one map, which is the fastest way to see what is lodged around an address. ePlanning.ie is the shared search system used by 23 councils for the full file. The four Dublin councils, Cork City, Cork County, Galway City and Wexford run their own search pages. For zoning, which the register cannot show, use MyPlan.ie. All of them are free.

1. The national map: what is around the house

Open nationalplanningapplications.ie, search the address or Eircode, and every application lodged with any council appears as a dot. Click one for the reference number, the applicant’s description, the dates and the decision. Zoom out to the 300 metres around the house: the field behind it, the corner site, the pub that wants to become apartments. This is the view that matters for a buyer, because a granted permission that has not been built yet is invisible at a viewing and plain on the map.

Its limits: it carries the summary, not the drawings or the planner’s report, and very old applications (before roughly 2010 for most councils) are patchy.

2. The council register: the full file

For drawings, the planner’s report, conditions and any appeal, go to the council that decided it. Twenty-three councils share one system at ePlanning.ie, so the search works the same way everywhere: by reference number, by address, by date range, or by drawing a box on the map. The others run their own. Here is every planning authority’s search page:

Reading a file: the application form says what is proposed; the drawings show it; the planner’s report is the council’s own assessment and is the most useful document on the file; the decision lists conditions (a condition about hours of work or a financial contribution tells you a lot about what is coming). Citizens Information gives the timetable: the council must decide within 8 weeks unless it asks for further information, anyone can make a submission for €20 while the application is open, and a decision can be appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála within 4 weeks. An appeal means the file is not finished, so check the appeal status before you treat a grant or a refusal as final.

3. MyPlan: what the land is allowed to become

The register shows what people have asked for. MyPlan.ie shows what the development plan allows: the zoning of every parcel, from residential to industrial to open space, under the council’s current plan. A green field zoned for housing beside a house will be built on eventually, with or without an application on file today. Turn on the zoning layer, click the fields around the house, and read the objective.

What to check for the house itself

Search the house’s own address as well as its surroundings. An extension, a garage conversion or a dormer with no planning file is a question for the seller’s solicitor: either it was exempt, and the seller should say why, or it needs retention. A refused retention application is a red flag. Since 27 July 2026 the exemption limits changed (rear extensions up to 45 square metres, for example), so the date of the work matters; the 2026 exemptions guide goes through it.

Where our report fits

The report does the three searches for one Eircode: every application within 300 metres with its decision and appeal status, the house’s own planning and building-control files, and the zoning of the surrounding land, with a link to the register entry for each. By county, with the busiest towns and the largest schemes on file: planning permission by county and council.

Questions people ask

Is there one national planning register for Ireland?

Not a single legal register: each council keeps its own. The national planning applications map brings them together for searching, and ePlanning.ie gives 23 of them one shared search system.

How far back do online planning records go?

It varies by council. Most have full online files from the late 2000s and summary records back to the 1990s or earlier; anything before October 1964 predates the planning system and has no file at all.

Can I see who objected to an application?

Yes. Submissions are part of the public file, with the name of the person who made them, and are usually visible on the council register.