Mr. Terry Sheridan:

Deputy Collins asked about the seven-year rule and Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked about the local needs criteria applied by local authorities to determine planning applications in particular areas.

I willl preface my remarks by saying that the national spatial strategy and rural housing guidelines advocate that the planning system should facilitate rural generated housing, where feasible, in order to maintain rural populations and support rural communities and economies. That is the basic planning principle and policy. As Mr. Cussen has mentioned, there is a need to manage the overspill pressure in the areas located around the main cities, and in the rural areas located around the main cities in particular. I have outlined the areas where restrictions are generally applied.

As Deputy Collins has mentioned, we have an issue with the residency requirements that local authorities have included in the development plans. Applicants for planning permission are required to reside in an area for a specific period. We have conducted a trawl of the local authorities and discovered that the periods can vary from two to ten years. The provision breaches the EU treaty's requirement for the free movement of citizens because it discriminates against non-locals and prevents them from residing in areas.

We are in the process of revising the rural housing guidelines and the local needs criteria. A working group comprised of the Department and local authorities has been established to consider the criteria and recommend more neutral, non-discriminatory and balanced criteria that do not favour locals over non-locals. We hope to have the criteria finalised within the next couple of months thus ending restrictive residency requirements.