Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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392. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding An Bord Pleanála; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27242/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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National policy in relation to residential densities in urban areas is set out in the Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (Cities, Towns and Villages), which was published by my Department in May 2009 under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). The objective of the guidelines is to ensure high quality sustainable development through facilitating:

- quality homes and neighbourhoods;

- places where people want to live, work and raise families; and

- places that work in relation the provision of infrastructure.

The guidelines set out a broad policy context for the achievement of sustainable development by balancing the need to ensure the highest standards of residential design, while at the same time ensuring efficient use of scarce land and infrastructural resources and the avoidance of urban sprawl. In particular, the guidelines set out a range of densities appropriate to different location types, from lower densities in the range of 15-20 dwellings per hectare at the edges of smaller towns and villages for private site type developments to densities in the range of 20-40 dwellings per hectare in more centrally or edge of centre sites in smaller towns, through to densities in the range of a minimum of 50 dwellings per hectare in larger urban areas along public transport corridors. The guidelines also place a heavy emphasis on the importance of public infrastructure such as public transport, community facilities and sports facilities as densities increase towards more central urban locations, and of the development plan process in achieving effective outcomes in securing sustainable urban development.

An Bord Pleanála is required to take the guidelines into account in the performance of its statutory planning functions. The comments of the Chairperson at the launch of the Annual Report of the Board for 2013 were particularly focussed on the future sustainable development of the Greater Dublin Area and are broadly in line with the national policy on urban residential densities outlined above. In this regard, it is considered in the overall context of the development of new housing in the Greater Dublin Area, and indeed in the other major urban centres, that the quality of urban construction and house design is consistent with best international standards in order to ensure the highest sustainable living patterns into the future.