Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government following and arising from the recent decision of the Supreme Court which ends the practice whereby developers ceded lands for community use, including sports fields, in return for zoning of other lands or planning permission on other lands for residential or commercial uses, if he proposes to introduce any measures to enable communities to acquire affordable lands for community needs such as sport, leisure, playgrounds or cultural needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27470/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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My Department is not aware of the Court case referred to in the Question.

Paragraph 7.11 of my Department's Development Management Guidelines for planning authorities (June 2007), "Conditions requiring the ceding of land" states that conditions should not be attached to planning permissions requiring land to be ceded to the local authority for road widening or other purposes, nor should conditions require applicants to allow the creation of public rights-of-way, other than such access roads as are considered a necessary part of the development, or to agree to transfer part of their land to some third party as, say, the site for a school or a church, as such conditions are not lawful. The Guidelines also state that it is not lawful to require by condition a transfer of an interest in land to the local authority or other person/body and that while elements of "planning gain" – not strictly required as part of the development, but of benefit to the public (e.g. transfer of specified land or buildings for public use) - may be accepted as part of a permitted development it is important to ensure that the decision whether to grant or refuse planning permission is not contingent on an offer of planning gain. The Guidelines also refer to the Supreme Court ruling on planning gain in the case of Ashbourne Holdings Ltd. V.An Bord Pleanála.

I have no plans to amend the guidelines in this regard at present.