Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to address this issue. I asked if the Minister for housing could provide an update and whether he could possibly relax the rural housing planning guidelines to facilitate more people who wish to build their own homes in rural areas. There is an urgent need to look at these plans and to revise them because there are so many people who genuinely wish to live in the countryside and build their own homes there.

The decisions on these applications are made on the basis of an Act that dates from 2005, which is 20 years ago. The rules were designed for a different era. In their current form, they are overly rigid and no longer serve rural communities or the State in the midst of a national housing crisis. Surely, nothing can be off the table at a time like this. If we are serious about increasing housing supply, we also have to be serious about creating opportunities for people who want to put down roots in rural areas. Since becoming a public representative, I have met countless young couples who are desperately searching for a way out of the housing crisis, families who are trapped in small terraced homes that no longer meet their growing needs and others who are living separately in their childhood bedrooms and who cannot afford to rent because they are saving a deposit to buy a home.

Across rural Ireland, and particularly in County Limerick, there is strong demand from people who want to build their own homes. However, outdated planning policies are preventing them from doing so. My colleagues Councillors Ger Ward, Fergus Kilcoyne, Martin Ryan and Francis Foley recently moved a motion on this topic at a meeting of Limerick County Council. They outlined practical proposals, which I fully endorse and which I will set out for the Minister of State. Their proposals include that the rules relating to ribbon development should be modernised. One of the greatest obstacles is the strict interpretation of the policy relating to ribbon development. In County Limerick, for example, residential development along a rural road is limited to four houses per 250 m. Originally well intentioned, this rule is now applied so rigidly that many local people cannot build on their own land. My councillor colleagues have proposed a practical update to allow up to six houses per 250 m. It is a small adjustment but it would allow more people to build homes.

The councillors have also proposed that ribbon development restrictions be scrapped altogether in respect of areas within 1 km of country towns and villages. That is a practical proposal. I would go further. I am of the view that the local area criterion should also be scrapped for proposals in respect of new home developments within 1 km of a town or village. The local area criterion was introduced to prevent speculative development. Twenty years on, however, our patterns of living, working and shopping have changed dramatically. More people work from home, online shopping means fewer car trips and many rural businesses are struggling with footfall, so edge-of-settlement areas within 1 km of towns and villages are ideal for rural housing. In these locations, if applicants satisfy all other planning criteria, there is no meaningful purpose to having a local area criterion as well.

I wish to put forward a couple of suggestions. The Aire Stáit will indulge me. We should replace the requirement to demonstrate a housing need for people who want to build one-off rural houses. If someone satisfies all other criteria, what difference does it make if you have another home? A new house is being built. Are we not in the game of housing supply? It is great if another home comes onto the rental market. Is that not a good thing?

We should allow landowners who meet the local area criterion to transfer their building options. People who satisfy the local area criterion and have a site should be able to transfer that building option to another person who has the means and wishes to make use of it.

All of these proposals serve one simple objective, namely to make it possible for more people who want to live in rural Ireland to build their own family homes. When will the rural planning guidelines be updated?

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Ryan for raising this important matter and giving me an opportunity to update the House on it. The national planning framework, NPF, as revised in April, retains national policy objective, NPO, 24 "to support the sustainable development of rural areas". This NPO makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence, that is, those areas within the commuter catchments of cities, towns and centres of employment, where there is a need to facilitate rural housing on the basis of demonstrable economic or social need, on the one hand, and rural areas where population levels may be low or declining and rural housing may be facilitated on the basis of siting and design, on the other.

In order to give further effect to the policies and objectives of the revised NPF, and to provide clarity and consistency - both of which are critically important - within the planning system in the context of how considerations relating to rural housing should be addressed in both development plans and decisions on planning applications, the Government's new housing action plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, contains a commitment to publish a national planning statement in respect of rural housing in the latter half of 2026.The Senator cited ribbon development in her opening contribution. It is true to say that ribbon development is treated differently in development plans across the country. In the new NPO, we need to see that clarity and consistency of approach, whether it is Donegal, Waterford, Limerick or Dublin.

The national planning statement will replace the current rural housing planning guidelines which date from 2005 and will continue to enable development plans to provide for housing in rural areas. This will be balanced with the need to manage development in certain areas, including areas around cities and larger towns and environmentally sensitive areas.

The development of this new national planning statement is a priority for Government, recognising that, nationally, rural housing continues to be an important component of overall new housing delivery. The vast majority of one-off houses - well in excess of 90% - are built in rural settings. I highlight that, notwithstanding the need for updated rural housing guidance to address issues relating to consistency of policy application, planning permission has been granted for almost 6,000 one-off houses, on average, every year since 2020. One-off houses have comprised 20% of housing completions over the past five years, with an average of 5,200 completed per annum.

Furthermore, my Department is a key participant in the development of the new Our Rural Future policy, which will take effect from 2026. My Department also regularly engages with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht on matters relating to rural areas. In addition, my Department is focused on supporting the provision of the necessary infrastructure to enable housing development across the country, not least in the area of developer-provided infrastructure, on which a memo went to Cabinet a couple of weeks ago, to be able to facilitate development in those smaller population settlements that have not been able to develop over the last number of years.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Before Senator Ryan comes back in, I welcome a group from Scoil Fhursa Boys National School who are guests of Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. I hope they enjoy their visit to Leinster House and I thank them for being here.

Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge the fine work that is being done to facilitate a greater number of homes to be developed around the country, and congratulations on the publication of the new housing plan. We look forward to supporting the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, in the coming years, and achieving those goals that we have set in government.

The proposals that I have outlined today are practical small tweaks that can be made in this area of rural housing. I will send them to the Minister of State and the Department for consideration. I am delighted to hear that updated planning guidelines will be brought forward by the end of next year.

We must accept that more new homes need to be built in rural Ireland. As the Minister of State rightly outlined, about 5,000 of these houses are built per annum at present. In my experience of dealing with people who wish to build, there is a much greater demand and we could facilitate, within reason, more new homes to be built in rural Ireland.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Senator mentioned "within reason" and that is appropriate. I have tried to introduce in the Department a common-sense and practical approach to planning in everything that I have done.

On rural policy, I absolutely will ensure that we continue to support the development of rural one-off housing, as is happening around the country at present, but we must strike a balance. I am from Waterford city and I do not believe that I should be able to go out into mid-County Waterford or west Waterford, buy a greenfield plot of land and build a brand new house. Of course I can go there and take a vacant or derelict property and turn it into my home. Of course there are areas of the country where, by virtue of somebody being born within a certain delineated line, that they are not able to go outside of it, particularly in smaller settlements. These are all the things that are being discussed with my officials at the moment. I want to strike the balance in supporting towns and villages in rural areas while at the same time enabling rural one-off housing, where appropriate, in settings across the country.