The Government has agreed a proposed policy direction for rural housing, meaning the draft statement can now move to environmental assessment under relevant EU directives.

The draft sustainable rural and Gaeltacht housing national planning statement (NPS) was prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and is planned to be published before the end of the year.

It will mark the most significant update to rural housing policy since the introduction of the 2005 Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines.

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How the draft will improve consistency and clarity

  • Clearer definitions and categories of rural areas.

  • Standardised criteria for assessing local rural housing need.
  • Avoiding prescriptive local policies that place caps or limits on appropriate rural housing development.
  • Consistent approach to rural zoning and designations across all local authorities.
  • Guidance on siting, design and access arrangements.
  • New guidance on new housing in Gaeltacht areas introducing standardised language competency assessments to prioritise Irish speakers.
  • Language competency assessments to prioritise Irish speakers.
  • Vibrant rural town and villages by addressing vacancy and infrastructure deficits that are constraining growth.

    • Impacts of new measures

  • Improve transparency and certainty for people wishing to build a new house in a rural area.
  • Enable more consistent decisions between different local authorities.
  • Support balanced rural development aligned with national policy.
  • Increase housing choice in rural towns and villages, by addressing vacancy and dereliction and water or wastewater deficits that have constrained housing including through new developer led infrastructure (DLI) measures.

    • Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne emphasised that the statement would ensure that “planning decisions are transparent, evidence-based and applied consistently across all local authorities and will meet the local housing needs of rural communities”.

    “Crucially, this will end the current eircode lottery where a house may be permitted in one part of the country while down the road in a neighbouring county, permission would be denied for the exact same development.

    “The statement strikes the right balance between supporting rural communities, ensuring vibrant rural towns and villages and protecting the character and sustainability of our countryside.”

    Gaeltacht areas

    The draft NPS seeks to provide clarity and consistency within the planning system in relation to the protection and promotion of the Irish language in Gaeltacht areas, by clarifying the planning and language criteria that will apply in the consideration of new single rural housing and housing in Gaeltacht settlements.

    Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht Dara Calleary said: “The draft policy strengthens the planning system’s support for the Irish language in Gaeltacht areas, making it clearer and more consistent by setting out the language criteria, which may be submitted with applications for new single rural dwellings and requiring a proportion of multi-unit developments to be lived in by Irish speakers.

    “Importantly, the policy also recognises that Gaeltacht communities share a specific culture, language and identity. It introduces the idea of ‘inter-Gaeltacht recognition’, meaning Irish speakers who live and work in one Gaeltacht can use that to show they meet local need requirements in another Gaeltacht.”

    Next steps

    The draft NPS will now need to be assessed under the relevant EU environmental directives and associated public consultation, prior to its final approval by Government and issue by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage under Section 25 of the Planning and Development Act 2024.

    Until they are replaced by any final national planning statement, the Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines for Planning Authorities 2005 remains in effect.

    IFA reaction

    The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said that the progress is a “positive step” for rural Ireland.

    IFA president Francie Gorman said excessive planning restrictions have become one of the main barriers facing young people and families who want to live, work and be part of a community in rural Ireland and that the launch should go some way towards addressing this problem.

    “[The] IFA will work with ministers James Browne, Dara Calleary, John Cummins and Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran to make sure this new policy delivers real benefits across all parts of rural Ireland,” said the IFA president.