John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank him for his congratulations as well.

The Senator is correct that this is a major issue in rural areas. It is fair to state, however, that rural housing has been a major issue for 20 years, not least in the Senator's area of north Kildare. I will outline the position from the perspective of the recently announced national planning framework, NPF. The latter was published in 2018 and it sets out the overarching strategic planning approach underpinning the sustainable development of both urban and rural areas in the period to 2040. To articulate the broad content of the NPF in clear and understandable terms, the framework contains national planning objectives to guide and inform the planning process.

National policy objective 15 of the NPF fully supports the concept of the sustainable development of rural areas. It seeks to encourage growth and arrest decline in areas that have experienced low population growth or population decline in recent decades, while also highlighting the need to manage certain areas around cities and towns that are under strong urban influence and under pressure from unco-ordinated and ribbon-type development in order to avoid overdevelopment of those areas. Some of that took place in the past, particularly in areas close to large urban centres. This is supplemented by national policy objective 19, which points to the need to ensure that in providing that rural communities meet housing requirements a policy distinction should be made between areas experiencing significant overspill development pressure from urban areas, particularly within the commuter catchments of cities, towns and centres of employment, and other remoter and weaker rural areas where population levels may be low, declining or both.

In the context of weaker rural areas, objective 19 provides that the determination of planning applications for single houses in the countryside should be based on general siting and design-based criteria for rural housing in statutory guidelines and plans, having regard to the viability of smaller towns and rural settlements. These criteria include matters such as landscape, vehicular access and wastewater disposal. On the other hand, where development pressures and the risk of haphazard development in the vicinity of larger urban centres as designated in local authority development plans are evident, objective 19 advises that it is reasonable that the determination of applications for housing in such rural areas should be informed by considerations beyond the siting and design criteria for rural housing contained in statutory guidelines and plans. In particular, account should be taken of whether there is a demonstrable functional requirement for such housing in social, economic or occupational terms and whether such development, of itself or in combination with existing and permitted development, would lead to detrimental haphazard and unco-ordinated development.

These objectives represent a balanced approach, consistent with long-standing Government policies on sustainable development and previous planning guidelines issued in 2005 under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act. Planning authorities are required to have regard to these guidelines on sustainable rural housing in the framing of planning policies in their development plans and in the assessment of individual planning applications for rural housing.Under the 2005 guidelines, planning authorities are required to adopt a balanced approach to ensure the housing needs of rural communities are met, while avoiding excessive urban-generated housing and haphazard development, particularly in the areas we have mentioned. Accordingly, the objectives of the national planning framework are aligned with the approach that is already expected of planning authorities under the current guidelines.

Arising from a European Court of Justice ruling in the Flemish decree case, which is of relevance to the local needs criterion, the 2005 guidelines are being reviewed by a working group comprising officials from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and representatives of planning authorities nominated by the local government sector. It is likely that many of the planning applications referred to by the Senator fall into the categories of the local needs criterion or the 2005 guidelines. The Flemish decree, which linked the sale or transfer of property in certain Flemish communes with the condition that there should exist a sufficient connection between the prospective property buyer and the relevant commune, was ultimately and perhaps not surprisingly deemed by the European Court of Justice to be in breach of Article 43 of the treaty on the freedom of movement of citizens. Following engagement between the Department and the European Commission further to the case, and subject to the completion of the working group's ongoing deliberations, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government expects to be in a position shortly to finalise and issue planning authorities with revisions to the 2005 rural housing guidelines that take account of the judgment in the Flemish decree case.

From my perspective, I will certainly talk to the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. It is not unreasonable for someone who grew up in a rural area and has lived there all for all of his or her life to expect to be able to continue living in that community. Obviously, that depends on other important factors like the design of the house, the availability of wastewater treatment, access and the extent to which development has already taken place in the area. I am aware of some of the inconsistencies about which the Senator has spoken. To answer his question directly, the ultimate objective is that the revised guidelines will be circulated to each local authority as soon as they are finalised to ensure there is a uniform approach to the national planning framework when it comes to individual decisions at local authority level. In my distinct role in charge of local government, I must emphasise that each local authority is an independent republic. It is a bit of an oxymoron to be the Minister of State with responsibility for local government, given that local authorities - quite rightly - jealously guard their own independence, such as they have it. It is not unreasonable to think the new guidelines should be completed as soon as possible and circulated to ensure there is a uniform approach across the country.