Donegal planning permission: how often it is granted, and how long it takes
In the 12 months to 3 November 2026, Donegal decided 2,026 planning applications: 1,891 were granted (93%) and 135 were refused. Half of the decisions came within 51 days, and nine in ten within 170 days.
The figures
- Granted
- 93%about 1 in 15 refused 75%100%
- Median wait for a decision
- 51 days 45105 days
- Nine in ten decided within
- 170 days 110260 days
- Asked for more information
- 29%
- Decisions in the 12 months
- 2,026grants and refusals; invalid, withdrawn and other outcomes left out
- One-off houses
- 46 decisions, 93% granted
- Last application in the register
- 30 October 2026
Applications filed each year
- 20192,043
- 20202,074
- 20212,635
- 20222,105
- 20232,030
- 20242,451
- 20252,516
- 20262,142
The hatched bar is a part year: the register's last application for Donegal was received on 30 October 2026.
How Donegal compares with the other councils
Donegal grants more often than most councils. It ranks 7th of 30 on the share of applications granted, 3 points above the median council (90%). A typical decision comes faster than at the median council: 51 days against 55. Few files drag on: nine in ten decisions came within 170 days, against 209 days at the median council.
Requests for further information are less frequent here: the register records one on 29% of all the decisions it records, against 39% for the median council, and decisions are no slower than the median. For the 46 decisions flagged as one-off houses, the share granted (93%) is close to the council's overall figure.
Applications are up. Donegal received 2,516 in 2025, 23% more than the 2,043 of 2019. The busiest full year was 2021, with 2,635 applications; 20 of the 31 councils peaked in that year.
What Donegal reported for 2025
Donegal reported 1,349 applications decided within 8 weeks, the second-highest figure in the returns after Dublin City. Houses make up most of what it receives: 845 dwelling applications, followed by 126 farm buildings, the fifth-highest agricultural count, and 51 commercial premises. Social-use buildings add 42. The civil engineering and other functional lines are both at zero. Invalid applications are frequent, with 376, the fifth-highest count of the 30 councils. Of 84 refusals, 62 hit houses and 7 social-use buildings, a refusal count on that line that only Limerick and Kilkenny exceeded. Public buildings are a small group, 9, and industrial sites number 16. The quick turnaround in the return matches the register, where Donegal's median wait is shorter than the median council's.
These figures come from each council's annual return to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: applications received in 2025, decisions to refuse and other measures, published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. An application that fits several categories is counted in each, so the categories do not add up to a number of applications, and the Department notes that councils may have read its guidance in slightly different ways.
Following an application in Donegal
In the national register, Donegal applications link to their files on eplanning.ie/DonegalCC.
See all the councils compared ยท Do you need planning permission at all?