Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 July 2026
429. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the way spatial planning policy is assisting or seeking to assist in the preservation and proliferation of public services in rural communities. [50868/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Planning Framework (NPF) 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.
One of the key areas of policy focus in the NPF on ‘compact growth’, which 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.
To this end, specific targets are set out in the NPF in relation to the proportion of new residential development that should take place within the existing built up area of settlements of different scales. There is a target to deliver at least half (50%) of all new homes that are targeted in the five Cities and suburbs and at least 30% of all new homes that are targeted in settlements other than the five Cities and their suburbs, within their existing built-up footprints.
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.
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 strategy document which sets out the relevant policies and objectives to guide the physical development of each city and county, currently over a six-year period, including both urban and rural areas.
It is through the development plan that planning authorities set out relevant objectives, policy support and development management standards for development, as well as identifying suitable locations or areas for specific forms of development. The power to make or vary a development plan is a reserved function of the elected members of each planning authority.
All future development plans will be made for a period of 10 years 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.
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.
In deciding individual planning applications, planning authorities are restricted to considering the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, regard being had to, inter alia, the development plan and the policy of the Government, the Minister or any other Minister of the Government. By virtue of section 34(13) of the Act, a person shall not be entitled solely by reason of a permission to carry out any development e.g. where other statutory obligations may apply.
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.
The Government agreed a proposed policy direction for rural and Gaeltacht housing on 30 June 2026. This means that the Draft National Planning Statement (NPS) on Sustainable Rural and Gaeltacht Housing, prepared by my Department under Section 25 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, can now move to environmental assessment under relevant EU Directives, prior to its approval by Government.
The new draft Statement refines and updates the existing 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines to reflect the Planning and Development Act 2024 and the established policy in the Revised National Planning Framework (NPF), which is to facilitate new rural housing for those with a local rural housing need, balanced with preventing urban generated sprawl in rural areas under urban development pressures, protecting and promoting the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Gaeltacht, and the regeneration of rural towns and villages.
The proposed new policy approach seeks to provide more clarity and consistency across the various planning authorities by defining the relevant planning and local needs criteria to be applied in local development plans and in the consideration of planning applications for single rural housing in rural and Gaeltacht areas.
The draft NPS will now be assessed for the purposes of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) under the EU SEA and Birds and Habitats Directives, including any necessary associated consultation, in advance of the planned publication of a final National Planning Statement following Government approval, before the end of 2026.
Under Section 25 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, draft National Planning Statements are subject to approval by Government prior to issue by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Until they are replaced by any final National Planning Statement, the Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2005 remain in effect.
