Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 June 2026
171. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the engagement that has taken place between his Department, infrastructure providers such as Uisce Éireann, and local authorities in relation to the long-term planning of water, energy and transport infrastructure required to support future investment and economic growth in County Offaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48123/26]
View answerThe local authority development plan is the principal planning strategy document which sets out the relevant policies and objectives to guide the physical development of each city and county over a six-year period. It is through the development plan that planning authorities set out relevant objectives and policies to support the provision of infrastructure necessary to enable investment and growth. The power to make or vary a development plan is a reserved function of the elected members of each planning authority.
Stakeholder engagement plays a key role in the plan-making process, enabling planning authorities to have due regard to the policies of Government departments and State Agencies, thereby ensuring effective decision-making at local level that is consistent with Government policy and national and regional policy objectives.
Under sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (under which all existing development plans were prepared), planning authorities were required to notify prescribed authorities when reviewing or varying their development plans. Under Article 13 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 a wide range of Government departments and State Agencies are prescribed for this purpose.
All future development plans will be made under Part 3, Chapter 5 (Development Plans) of the Planning and Development Act 2024, which was commenced on 31 December 2025. Sections 44 to 51 of the Act of 2024 require planning authorities to include various strategies and objectives in their development plans including in relation to the sustainable use of land, integrated transport, infrastructure, and the amenities, facilities and services required meet the social, recreational and cultural needs of the community.
To facilitate the move to plan-making under the Act of 2024, I signed the Planning and Development (Prescribed Persons - Statutory Plans) Regulations 2025 in October 2025. These Regulations prescribe certain public bodies for the purposes of stakeholder consultation in the plan-making processes under the Act. Included among those prescribed are infrastructure providers such as Uisce Éireann, Eirgrid, ESB Networks, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Separately, as part of the process to prepare a development plan, section 54(5)(c) of the Act of 2024 requires each planning authority to take such measures as it considers appropriate to consult the providers of (i) energy, (ii) telecommunications, (iii) water services, (iv) transport, (v) any other infrastructure, (vi) education, (vii) health, (viii) policing, and (ix) any other services, in order to ascertain any long-term plans for the provision of infrastructure and services in the functional area of the planning authority.
The statutory requirement to notify prescribed authorities and consult with service providers during the plan-making process enables providers of public infrastructure and services to contribute from an early stage and ensure that their inputs inform the process. Such engagement also has the secondary function of allowing infrastructure providers to take account of the planned quantum and distribution of proposed development in specified areas over a medium-term horizon.
A similar approach is reflected in the development management process through Article 28 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, such that when a planning authority receives a planning application that interacts with the statutory remit of a prescribed body, that application is required to be referred to the prescribed body in question in order to enable it to make a submission or observation to the planning authority.
Additional guidance to planning authorities on engagement with prescribed bodies is also provided in the form of Ministerial guidelines issued under section 28 of the 2000 Act, including but not limited to, the Development Plans Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2022), and Development Management Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2007).
My Department has oversight responsibility for Uisce Eireann and separately, my Department has established a Housing Activation Office within the Department to accelerate the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development in towns and cities across the country. The office works with stakeholders across Government, including individual local authorities, to identify and resolve infrastructure constraints that are impacting on housing development, including through the provision of funding under the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund.
