About the role  

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Planning Services Team and make a meaningful contribution to the delivery of systems-related Planning Services to local authorities and the public.

 The LGMA is responsible for the delivery of systems-related Planning Services to local authorities. The main planning services provided are iPlan; iDocs; www.eplanning.ie  and the National Online Planning portal.

The LGMA supports the iPlan planning application management system for 24*Irish Local Authorities, both as a locally hosted instance in each Local Authority and as a web-based version on the site www.eplanning.ie  which enables the public to search on all Irish planning applications.

The LGMA also supports the iDocs document management system that is used by Local Authorities, which integrates with a number of systems. There are currently projects underway to rollout a .Net version of iPlan and iDocs, to ensure their availability going forward.

The successful candidate will be part of the Planning Services team that supports iPlan, iDocs and www.eplanning.ie. This work includes issue management and tracking, software deployment and release management, scripting/automation of system management procedures and monitoring/alerting tools. The role will also encompass planning future releases, release deployments and future projects.

The Planning Services team also supports and manages the National Online Planning Portal which is located at https://planning.localgov.ie, this portal enables Online Planning Applications, Online Submissions on planning applications and Part 8 applications to be managed electronically by all Irish local authorities. Currently, the Portal is live in 28 local authorities with three local authorities remaining to go live in 2025.

The functionality of the Portal was developed by two primary vendors and is hosted on servers within the LGMA Campus. The Portal consists of a Drupal front-end which the public use to submit planning applications, and a Sugar CRM system and integration which manages the transitioning of Planning Applications data and documentation from the public facing website to the individual Local Authorities’ Planning Management Systems (iPlan/APAS/Odyssey) and Document Management Systems.

The Planning Services Technical Officer will be a contributor to the development and implementation of policies and strategies within the LGMA and may represent the LGMA on internal/external sub-committees and/or working groups. They will work closely with senior management, external agencies, local authorities, and relevant stakeholders to deliver the programme of work of the work area. The ideal candidate must therefore be a highly motivated person, with a strong sense of commitment to delivering quality services and willing to take on a challenge.

For more information see candidate information booklet