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 the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage 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 Rural Housing Guidelines to reflect the 2024 Act 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 before the end of 2026.
Under Section 25 of the 2024 Planning and Development Act, 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 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2005 remain in effect.
The Draft NPS sets out the need for planning authorities to identify ‘high amenity areas’ where local need criteria may apply, and sets out what types of areas may be considered to constitute ‘high amenity areas’.
National Planning Policy And Measure 2 (NPPM 2) of the Draft NPS sets out that ‘Rural Areas Under Urban Influence’ shall be identified in accordance with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) urban/rural classifications for defining rural areas that are under ‘high and moderate urban influence’ at the most recent Census of population, and that the specific boundaries of ‘Rural Areas Under Urban Influence’ may be further refined by the planning authority within a statutory plan, in order to reflect the specific local circumstances, or, where justified, to apply a green belt type designation to areas in the five city metropolitan areas (defined in the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies) and immediate environs of larger towns (defined for the purposes of this NPPM as towns with 5,000 or more people) that are under significant urban development pressure in order to manage urban sprawl, prevent urban areas from merging into each other and to retain their character and identity as distinct from the surrounding rural countryside.
This approach sets out the policy direction with which planning authorities will, subject to the issuing of a final NPS following environmental assessment and Government approval to issue such an NPS, need to be consistent in identifying ‘Rural Areas under Urban Influence’ in their statutory plans.
