Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

Section 47 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that a planning authority may enter into an agreement with any person for the purposes of restricting or regulating development and the use of land permanently for a specified period. Certain arrangements under this section, more commonly known as sterilisation agreements, have been used on occasion by planning authorities to regulate development in rural areas. In areas where significant levels of rural housing development have taken place on the edges of cities and towns, such areas may tend to become over-developed.

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