Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
656. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department has reviewed the approaches taken by different local authorities in defining and assessing ribbon development in their county development plans; whether variations exist between counties in how ribbon development is calculated; and if so, whether he considers such variation to be consistent with national planning policy. [3901/26]
View answer657. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether national planning policy provides sufficiently clear guidance to local authorities on the treatment of backland or backyard development; whether his Department is aware of significant variation between county development plans in facilitating or restricting such development; and whether updated guidance is under consideration. [3903/26]
View answer658. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether he plans to issue updated national guidance or circulars to local authorities to ensure a consistent approach to ribbon development and backland development across the State; and if so, the proposed timeline for same. [3905/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 656, 657 and 658 together.
The National Planning Framework (NPF), which was first published in 2018 and was revised in 2025, sets out high-level national policies and objectives, which are essential to achieving proper planning and sustainable development, with a clear vision to guide future development and investment decisions. The strategy sets out the spatial planning policy approach to accommodating projected population growth to 2040 in a manner which delivers balanced regional development, based on a city-focused and compact growth pattern of development intended to reverse the pattern of sprawl that have been a feature over recent decades.
National Strategic Objective No. 1 of the National Planning Framework (NPF) is ‘Compact Growth’. This addresses the need for a more sustainable form of development in Ireland’s cities and towns, in particular. This policy initiative was introduced in response to an identified need to counter the trend of urban sprawl, to support the targeted delivery of infrastructure services, to promote cities and towns to be self-sustaining and viable places in which to live and work.
With regard to rural areas, the NPF complements and builds on existing government policy set out in Our Rural Future 2021-2025 and Our Living Islands National Islands Policy 2023-2033. It recognises that the Irish countryside is, and will continue to be, a living and lived-in landscape focusing on the requirements of rural economies and rural communities, based on agriculture, forestry, energy, inland waterways, marine, tourism and rural enterprise, while at the same time protecting the capacity of the receiving environment and avoiding ribbon and over-spill development from urban areas. The revised NPF notes the high cost of infrastructure delivery associated with ‘strip’ or ‘ribbon development’ as well as the role such development plays in hampering an effective responses to climate change, congestion and pollution, increased commuting times and on people’s health and wellbeing.
National Policy Objective (NPO) 24 of the Revised NPF seeks to support the sustainable development of rural areas by encouraging growth and arresting decline in areas that have experienced low population growth or decline in recent decades and by managing the growth of areas that are under strong urban influence to avoid overdevelopment, while sustaining vibrant rural communities.
The local authority development plan is the principal planning policy tool to achieve these objectives at a local level. All current development plans across the country were adopted under the Planning and Development Act 2000, which required planning authorities to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of their functional area including, where appropriate, rural areas in respect of which planning guidelines relating to sustainable rural housing issued by the Minister under section 28 apply.
Part 3, Chapter 5 (Development Plans) of the Planning and Development Act 2024 commenced on 31 December 2025. Sections 44 to 51 of the Act of 2024 require planning authorities to include various strategies and objectives in preparing development plans made under the 2024 Act, including in relation to the sustainable development of their functional area. Section 46 of the Act of 2024 requires planning authorities to prepare a housing development strategy for its functional area, including the provision of housing within settlements and the open countryside.
When preparing a development plan, planning authorities were required under the 2000 Act to have regard to any Ministerial Guidelines issued by the Minister under section 28 of that Act, and to apply any specific planning policy requirements (SPPRs) contained within those Guidelines.
Ministerial Guidelines will, over time, be replaced with National Planning Statements (NPSs) issued under the 2024 Act. All Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSES), development plans, planning schemes or planning frameworks must be ‘materially consistent’ with any National Planning Policies and Measures and take ‘due account’ any National Planning Policy Guidance contained within an NPS.
With regard to cities, towns and villages, and in support of the NPF Objectives, the Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlements Guidelines for Planning Authorities, were issued as Ministerial Guidelines in January 2024, under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). The Settlement Guidelines set out policy and guidance in relation to growth priorities for settlements at each tier in the national settlement hierarchy. This includes delivering brownfield and infill development (including backland development) at suitable locations and delivering integrated, sequential and sustainable extensions to existing settlements.
The Spatial Planning and National Roads Guidelines for Planning Authorities January 2012 were also issued under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). The Guidelines state that development plans and local area plans should include policies aimed at maintaining the safety and capacity of national roads by avoiding the creation of additional access points and the generation of additional traffic from existing access points on roads where a speed limit greater than 60 km/h applies. The planning authorities are strongly recommended to identify, as part of the development plan process, those stretches of non-national roads outside the 50-60 km/h speed limit zones where it would also be appropriate to apply the guidelines.
Rural Housing Guidelines were last issued in 2005 as Ministerial Guidelines under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. These Guidelines provide that people who are an intrinsic part of the rural community, on the basis of an economic or social need, should be facilitated in all rural areas. In areas under strong urban influence, the policy is to direct urban generated housing into cities, towns and villages. In a rural area suffering persistent and substantial population decline, the policy is to accommodate anyone wishing to build a house, subject to normal planning and environmental considerations.
Since the publication of the current Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines in 2005 (which continue to have effect in addition to subsequent clarifications and national policy changes in the NPF) there have been important changes to our planning system. Most notably, obligations under European Directives and international agreements relating to the management and protection of the environment and adapting to and mitigating climate change have become more central to the operation of the system.
As set out in Delivering Homes, Building Communities, we will publish a National Planning Statement that will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing, in order to provide clarity and consistency for rural housing within the planning system. The National Planning Statement for Rural Housing will be published in the second half of 2026, based on the high level policy framework set in the NPF.
The updated policy approach will expand on the high level spatial planning policy of the National Planning Framework (NPF), in particular on National Policy Objective (NPO) 28 which relates to rural housing. This objective makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence (i.e. areas within the commuter catchment of cities, large towns and centres of employment) on the one hand, and structurally weaker rural areas where population levels may be low or declining, on the other. NPO 28 is also aligned with the established approach whereby considerations of social or economic need are to be applied by planning authorities in rural areas under urban influence.
While planning policy is a national, as opposed to an EU competence, due care is being taken to ensure the updated guidelines will not operate to conflict with fundamental EU freedoms, comply with EU environmental legislative requirements and have due regard to decisions of the European Court of Justice. The draft National Planning Statement will address these complex environmental and legal issues, while also providing a framework for the sustainable management of housing in rural areas.
Following the commencement of Chapter 3 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 in October 2025, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will review existing Guidelines with the intention of replacing them with National Planning Statements under Section 25 of the new Act of 2024.
In the interests of clarity, the current Ministerial Guidelines will continue to have effect under Section 27 of the Act of 2024 until such time as they are revoked or replaced by a National Planning Statement.
