John Paul Phelan
Question:74. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the progress of the review into rural housing guidelines. [3047/22]
View answerTuesday, 25 January 2022
Questions (74)
Oral answers (5 contributions)
As we are running out of time, I ask the Deputy to skip his introduction and allow the Minister to reply.
I will do so.
The guidelines for planning authorities and sustainable rural housing 2005 were issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and require planning authorities to frame the planning policies in their development plans in a balanced and measured way. Since 2018 the national planning framework. NPF, is the national policy document providing the overall strategy for the future development of Ireland. National policy objective, NPO, 19 aims to ensure that policy distinction is made between areas experiencing significant overspill development pressure from urban areas. Updated rural housing planning guidelines are being prepared by my Department to ensure consistency with current requirements and legislation at national and EU level in respect of areas related to rural housing such as environmental protection, the Gaeltacht and climate action. The new guidelines will ensure a more consistent approach between counties and alignment with good planning policy. A draft should be ready by the first quarter of 2022.
I wish to reiterate, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and his colleagues, the importance of rural housing guidelines for much of the country. There are many communities around the country that are dispersed in nature, as the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, mentioned. It is possible to live in a community that is not in an urban setting. There is always an ongoing review of city and county development plans. Many of them are taking place at present. Each county council provides its own guidelines in respect of the development of rural housing, but there has been a more than ten-year gap since there were renewed guidelines from central Government. It is important for people and for the aims of the national planning framework on ensuring that there is a dispersal of the increase in population into rural areas that new rural housing guidelines would be published as soon as possible.
I concur with the Deputy. It is important that, as a society, we acknowledge and understand the demand for rural housing. That is critical to providing a policy to allow for it in a sustainable way. It is important that we have good planning practices and that we call out the misinformation that is currently circulating on WhatsApp groups and in society that one-off rural housing is going to be banned. That is entirely not going to be the case.
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