Meath planning permission: how often it is granted, and how long it takes
In the 12 months to 3 November 2026, Meath decided 1,344 planning applications: 1,129 were granted (84%) and 215 were refused. Half of the decisions came within 55 days, and nine in ten within 212 days.
The figures
- Granted
- 84%about 1 in 6 refused 75%100%
- Median wait for a decision
- 55 days 45105 days
- Nine in ten decided within
- 212 days 110260 days
- Asked for more information
- 36%
- Decisions in the 12 months
- 1,344grants and refusals; invalid, withdrawn and other outcomes left out
- One-off houses
- 64 decisions, 81% granted
- Last application in the register
- 29 October 2026
Applications filed each year
- 20191,691
- 20201,821
- 20212,430
- 20221,740
- 20231,680
- 20241,626
- 20251,691
- 20261,511
The hatched bar is a part year: the register's last application for Meath was received on 29 October 2026.
How Meath compares with the other councils
Refusals are more common in Meath than in most councils. It ranks 26th of 30 on the share granted, 6 points below the median council (90%). Its median wait matches that of the median council: 55 days. Nine in ten decisions came within 212 days, against 209 days at the median council.
The register records a request for further information on 36% of all the decisions it records, in line with the median council (39%). For the 64 decisions flagged as one-off houses, the share granted (81%) is close to the council's overall figure.
The number of applications has held steady: 1,691 in 2019 and 1,691 in 2025. The busiest full year was 2021, with 2,430 applications; 20 of the 31 councils peaked in that year.
What Meath reported for 2025
Meath counted more dwelling applications than any other council: 2,083, out of category counts of 2,308. Housing is a larger part of its return than anywhere else, with farm buildings (71), social-use buildings (54) and commercial premises (45) far behind. Its refusals follow the same pattern: 244 of the 263 were for houses, the most house refusals in the returns, and the overall total is the second-highest, after Limerick. Farm buildings were refused 13 times, the second-highest count on that line. Invalid applications came to 316. Industrial sites (41) rank 4th nationally, public buildings number 14, and the civil engineering and other functional lines are at zero. On speed, Meath lists 703 applications decided within 8 weeks. In the register, Meath grants a smaller share of its decisions than the median council. One year towers over Meath's series: 2,430 applications in 2021, when the next busiest full year, 2020, had 1,821.
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 Meath
In the national register, Meath applications link to their files on eplanning.ie/MeathCC.
See all the councils compared ยท Do you need planning permission at all?