Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 July 2020
139. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the degree to which particular attention can be given to ensure that the rural indigenous population can obtain planning permission in their own area within reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17930/20]
View answerUnder the Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Sustainable Rural Housing 2005, planning authorities are required to frame the planning policies in their development plans in a balanced and measured way that ensures the housing needs of rural communities are met, while avoiding excessive urban-generated housing, particularly in those areas near cities and towns that are under pressure from urban generated development.
The Guidelines identify four rural area types in respect of which planning authorities may formulate policies for ‘urban generated’ and ‘rural generated’ rural housing. Section 3.2.3 of the Guidelines suggests that in areas “under major urban influence”, planning authorities may define “rural generated” housing need for “Persons who are an intrinsic part of the rural community” and for “Persons working full-time or part-time in rural areas”.
The National Planning Framework (the NPF) and in particular National Policy Objective (NPO) 15 of the NPF fully supports the 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, while simultaneously indicating the need to manage the development of certain areas around cities and towns that are under strong urban influence, in order to avoid over-development of those areas.
National Policy Objective 15 is supplemented by National Policy Objective 19, which aims to ensure that a policy distinction is made between areas experiencing significant overspill development pressure from urban areas, particularly within the commuter catchment of cities, towns and centres of employment, on the one hand, and other remoter and weaker rural areas where population levels may be low and or declining, on the other. NPF Policy NPO19 is aligned with the established approach whereby considerations of social (intrinsic part of the community) or economic (persons working full or part time) need may be applied by planning authorities in rural areas under urban influence.
The 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines are framed in the context of the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) 2002. Given changes in policy since then, as well as other factors, there is merit in reviewing aspects of the 2009 Ministerial Guidelines on Sustainable Rural Housing, which I am considering in the context of broader rural development and settlement. In the meantime, the NPF objectives together with the 2005 Guidelines, enable planning authorities to continue to draft and adopt county development plan policies that enable planning applications to be considered and planning permission to be granted for houses in rural areas.
