Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not comment on Galway because it is a live matter with An Bord Pleanála.

The Deputy mentioned the NPF review. We are undertaking that now and it will be done as a matter of urgency. We are waiting for the final CSO data to do that and look at population trends and growth, specifically in relation to compact urban growth. Our town centre first policy feeds well into ensuring people, as I mentioned in my opening statement, are living in our town centres and have access to amenities and public transport.

In our cities, there has been a challenge, particularly in regard to building apartments and making sure that we are working towards 15-minute cities as well. We do not have enough people living in our cities. That is why we brought forward the Croí Cónaithe cities fund. I will make some announcements on that shortly to be able to get paused planning permissions for large-scale apartment developments in our five cities started and developed. That will be important for regeneration and renewal within our cities too, but also having more people being able to live and work within our cities.

I have also published the policy statement on the compact urban growth guidelines. They will be out on public display for another four-week period. I intend to have the revised compact urban growth guidelines in place this year. They are looking at good own-door design that can help to unlock developments right across the country and make sure that the appropriate planning is given in appropriate places. One of the criticisms of some of the measures previously was that planning permission was granted for developments that would not be built because they were not appropriate to a specific area. We want to be able to allow to have a regional focus on that. The compact urban growth policy statement has been issue. That will go out on public display with the compact urban growth guidelines. That public consultation is under way. That also deals with the settlement guidelines in place.