Planning application fees and costs in Ireland — €34 for an extension, €65 for a house, treble for retention

The council fee for a house extension is €34, and for a new house €65. Across the 11,409 applications the seven Greater Dublin Area councils we index received in the 12 months to 12 September 2026, 2,539 were declared invalid, 22%, and every one of those paid the fee twice: the council returns the fee with an invalid application, and the second lodgement needs a second site notice and a second newspaper advertisement. The notices cost more than the fee. So do the drawings. The fee is the part of the cost people ask about, and the least of it.

Schedule 9: what the council charges

Schedule 9 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 sets the fee by class of development, and the figures have not changed since 2001:

• A house: €65 for each house.
• Works to a house, including an extension, a garage, a porch or an alteration: €34.
• Other buildings: €3.60 per square metre of gross floor space, minimum €80, maximum €38,000.
• Outline permission: three-quarters of the full fee; the later permission consequent on outline, one-quarter.
• Retention: three times the fee for the same development applied for in advance, maximum €125,000.
• A section 5 declaration: €80. An extension of duration under s.42 has its own lower fee in the schedule.

There are reductions. A dwelling for a farmer's family on the farm pays half; a charity or a community body can ask for a reduced fee; a repeat application within a year after a refusal or withdrawal can be lodged at a reduced fee under article 171. The fee goes with the application on the day of lodging, and the council will not validate without it.

What everyone else charges

The site notice must be up before lodging, in the form in Schedule 3, and the newspaper notice must appear in a paper the council has approved. A quarter-page notice in a Dublin paper runs to a few hundred euro; some councils accept a smaller free-sheet. A planning consultant or architect for a domestic extension charges from about €1,500 for drawings and a lodgement to several thousand for a full service through further information. A new house on a rural site adds a site suitability assessment for the wastewater system, an engineer's percolation test and, on a protected site, an ecologist. None of that comes back on refusal.

Third parties pay too. An observation to the council costs €20 under Schedule 9, and must be lodged within five weeks of the council's receipt date. An appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála (formerly An Bord Pleanála) costs €220 for either side, an observation on someone else's appeal €50, and a request for an oral hearing €50. The applicant's appeal against a condition is also €220. The Commission's fees page has the schedule for larger cases.

Development contributions: the big number

A grant of permission for a new house or a commercial building carries a condition under s.48 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 requiring a development contribution towards roads, water, parks and community facilities. Each council adopts a scheme. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Dublin City and South Dublin all charge per square metre of new floor space, at different rates for residential and commercial, and the figure for a new house in Dublin is in the tens of thousands of euro. The condition is payable before the works begin, or by instalments agreed with the council, and an unpaid contribution is recoverable as a debt.

Domestic extensions are largely spared. Every Dublin scheme exempts the first 40 m² of an extension to a house, and some exempt the whole thing. Read the scheme before you draw: an extension of 42 m² can carry a contribution on 2 m² in one county and on 42 m² in the next. Supplementary schemes under s.49 add a charge near specific infrastructure, the Luas Cross City and the Cherrywood roads among them, and a special contribution under s.48(2)(c) can be attached to a single permission for a specific work.

What a refusal costs

Nothing back. The fee, the notices, the drawings and the reports are spent on a refusal, and the refusal is a permanent register entry. Fingal refused 295 of the 1,284 applications it decided in the past 12 months. Our reading: on anything bigger than a rear extension, pay for a pre-planning meeting first. Every Dublin council offers one under s.247 of the 2000 Act, free for domestic works, and the planner's view of the site before you spend on drawings is the cheapest advice in the process.

Check what was granted near you

Open the Explorer on your address and read the conditions on a recent grant; the contribution condition names the scheme and the sum. The Fingal place page shows that council's live grant, refusal and invalid counts.

Figures from the register on 12 September 2026 (live callouts refresh hourly); law checked 12 September 2026. Check with the council or a planning consultant before relying on this.

Frequently asked questions

How much does planning permission cost in Ireland?

The council fee is €65 for a house and €34 for an extension under Schedule 9 of the 2001 Regulations. Notices, drawings and consultants usually cost between €1,500 and several thousand euro on top, and a new house carries a development contribution under s.48.

How much is a retention application?

Three times the fee for the same works applied for in advance: €102 for a domestic extension, €195 for a house, up to a maximum of €125,000.

Do I get the fee back if planning is refused?

No. The fee is for the decision, not the outcome. An invalid application is returned with its fee, but the notices must be paid for again.

How much are development contributions in Dublin?

Each council's s.48 scheme charges per square metre of new floor space; a new house in Dublin typically carries a contribution in the tens of thousands of euro. Extensions to a house are exempt up to 40 m² in every Dublin scheme.

How much does it cost to object to a planning application?

€20 to the council within five weeks of receipt. Appealing the decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála costs €220, and an observation on another party's appeal €50.