Cavan planning permission: how often it is granted, and how long it takes
In the 12 months to 3 November 2026, Cavan decided 583 planning applications: 558 were granted (96%) and 25 were refused. Half of the decisions came within 62 days, and nine in ten within 209 days.
The figures
- Granted
- 96%about 1 in 23 refused 75%100%
- Median wait for a decision
- 62 days 45105 days
- Nine in ten decided within
- 209 days 110260 days
- Asked for more information
- 48%
- Decisions in the 12 months
- 583grants and refusals; invalid, withdrawn and other outcomes left out
- One-off houses
- 5 decisions, 100% grantedvery few decisions: read this share with care
- Last application in the register
- 2 November 2026
Applications filed each year
- 2019524
- 2020614
- 2021781
- 2022523
- 2023678
- 2024723
- 2025829
- 2026677
The hatched bar is a part year: the register's last application for Cavan was received on 2 November 2026.
How Cavan compares with the other councils
No council grants a larger share of its applications: Cavan comes first of the 30 councils with decisions in the register, with 96% granted against 90% for the median council. The wait is longer than at the median council: 62 days against 55, so 7 days more for a typical decision. Nine in ten decisions came within 209 days, the same as at the median council.
Cavan asks for further information more often than most councils: the register records a request on 48% of all the decisions it records, against 39% for the median council, and its decisions also take longer than the median. The register flags only 5 of Cavan's decisions as one-off houses, too few to compare with other applications.
Applications are up. Cavan received 829 in 2025, 58% more than the 524 of 2019. 2025 was the busiest full year in the register since 2019.
What Cavan reported for 2025
For every 5 dwelling applications in Cavan there was roughly one for a farm building: the return lists 342 dwellings and 66 agricultural buildings. Commercial premises come third at 31. Two smaller groups tie at 23 each, government, health and education buildings on one side and social-use buildings on the other, with industrial sites close behind at 20. Civil engineering barely registers (2). The council reported 29 decisions to refuse: 21 affected houses, 4 commercial schemes and 2 public buildings. Of the applications received, 130 did not pass validation, and 341 were settled inside 8 weeks. Cavan's farm-building count is the tenth-highest in the returns, ahead of many larger councils. The short list of refusals fits Cavan's first place in the register.
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 Cavan
In the national register, Cavan applications link to their files on eplanning.ie/CavanCC.
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