Sean Fleming
Question:504. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to respond to matters raised in correspondence (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32106/26]
View answerWednesday, 6 May 2026
Questions (504)
Written answers
The Spatial Planning and National Roads Guidelines, issued in 2012 as Ministerial Guidelines by the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), set out the circumstances under which access to national roads can be provided. Planning authorities are required to have regard to the Guidelines in the performance of their functions. While the Guidelines are focused on national roads, the regional road network also provides essential links between many large settlements and may include busy stretches of road. As such the guidelines may also inform the management of regional roads in particular circumstances.
The Guidelines state that local authority Development Plans must include policies which seek to maintain and protect the safety, capacity and efficiency of national roads and associated junctions, avoiding the creation of new accesses and the intensification of existing accesses to national roads where a speed limit greater than 50kmh applies. The guidelines do state that, in certain circumstances, planning authorities may identify stretches of national secondary roads where a less restrictive approach may be applied as part of the process of reviewing or varying the relevant development plan.
Development plans and any relevant local area plans may provide for a limited level of direct access to national roads to facilitate orderly urban development on the approaches to or exit from urban centres that are subject to a speed limit of 60kmh before a lower 50kmh limit is encountered. The Guidelines also state that access to national roads will be considered by planning authorities in accordance with normal road safety, traffic management and urban design criteria for built up areas where a 50kmh limit applies.
Both the zoning of land under the Planning and Development Acts, and the setting of speed limits under the Road Traffic Act, are reserved functions of local authorities. Section 63(3) of the Local Government Act 2001 provides that, subject to law, a Local Authority is independent in the performance of its functions.