About Fógra
Fógra shows what's being planned around you in Galway City and County, in clear language. It pulls planning records from official open-data sources, generates a short AI summary of each one, and plots them on a map near your location. It's informational only and not affiliated with any council or An Coimisiún Pleanála. New to the map? See How to use Fógra for a walkthrough of the radius, filters, and map symbols.
Where the data comes from
ePlanning (Council applications) from the National Planning Application Database, covering Galway City and County Councils. These are everyday planning applications decided by the local authority: house extensions, new homes, commercial units, changes of use, demolitions and so on. Each has a five-week public observation window from its received date, when anyone can make a submission to the council. Where that window is still open, Fógra shows a countdown.
An Coimisiún Pleanála (ABP) is the national planning body (formerly An Bord Pleanála). It handles appeals against council decisions, and large or strategic projects decided at national level. These cases show the real site footprint as a shape on the map rather than a single pin. There's no observation window for these, so no countdown is shown. Appeal outcomes also appear on the original council application as soon as the council's own feed carries them, often weeks before the appeals body's dataset catches up.
Construction notices (BCMS) are commencement notices and completion certificates from the Building Control Management System. They tell you a permitted project has actually started or finished on site. Where a notice can be matched to a planning application above, it adds a build-stage badge to that card rather than a new pin. Unmatched notices appear as their own construction pins. This updates roughly once a month.
Delivered infrastructure covers public infrastructure funded or built near you, from the Project Ireland 2040 capital tracker (myProjectIreland) and the Urban Regeneration & Development Fund tracker on GeoHive. It covers transport, active travel, health, education, community facilities, parks, water and town-centre regeneration. Any figures shown are what was committed or allocated at that stage, not a final audited cost. The trackers update about once a year, so treat this as a rough guide, not a complete list.
What the statuses mean
- Pending: a council application not yet decided.
- Under appeal: a case before An Coimisiún Pleanála awaiting a decision.
- Granted / Refused / Withdrawn: already decided or pulled.
By default only active items are shown so recent activity isn't buried by years of history. Use the Planning status options under Filters to bring decided cases back.
Good to know
- Council applications go back to January 2017; appeals and construction notices to 2014.
- Source data is open and licensed CC-BY 4.0. We check for new planning data every day; official sources update with roughly a one to two week lag, construction notices about monthly.
- AI summaries restate only what's in the official description and don't assess planning merits or zoning. Always check the linked source for the full record.
- Applicant personal details are never shown.
Accuracy & disclaimer
Fógra republishes public data as supplied, without guarantee of accuracy, completeness or currency, and accepts no liability for loss arising from its use. Nothing here is legal, planning or professional advice - verify against the linked official record before acting.
Your privacy
There are no accounts and no login. Nothing about you is stored: no personal details, no saved searches, no location history.
- If you tap “Use my location” or search, the coordinates are used only to fetch matching records for that request and aren't saved. Map tiles and place lookup are provided by OpenStreetMap, so those services see your request. That includes whatever you type in the search box, which is checked against OpenStreetMap's places as well as Fógra's own records.
- We count page views in aggregate only. No cookies are set and you're not identified or tracked across other sites.
- No advertising or third-party trackers.
Data sources & licence
All data is open and licensed CC-BY 4.0. Fógra is independent and not affiliated with any of the bodies below.
- Council applications: National Planning Application Database (Galway City & County Councils, via ePlanning).
- Appeals & strategic cases: An Coimisiún Pleanála.
- Construction notices: Building Control Management System (BCMS), published by the National Building Control & Market Surveillance Office. These have no public per-notice page, so construction-only items don't carry an individual link.
- Delivered infrastructure: myProjectIreland and the Urban Regeneration & Development Fund tracker, © Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, via GeoHive.
Contact
Spotted an error, have a question, or a suggestion? Email andy@quinn.ie.