Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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361. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if new apartment minimum sizes, specified in a publication by his Department entitled 'Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments - Guidelines for Planning Authorities', are mandatory for local authorities and if they supersede local minimum apartment sizes specified in local development plans (details supplied). [9379/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The apartment minimum sizes specified in the Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments - Guidelines for Planning Authorities, published in December 2015, are mandatory for all local authorities. The sizes for 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments are not new standards but a restatement of the minimum apartment sizes for such apartments set out in previous statutory guidelines published in 2007 after extensive public consultation and the engagement of independent professional architectural and design expertise. In addition and more importantly to ensure their consistent application, including in the many local authority areas with no minimum standards, the 2015 guidelines were drafted in a manner that avails of amendments to the Ministerial powers under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to issue guidelines to planning authorities, which amendments were inserted by the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015.

The 2015 Act enables statutory guidelines to expressly state “Specific Planning Policy Requirements” to be applied by planning authorities, or An Bord Pleanála, as appropriate, in the exercise of their planning functions and where any conflict arises between such guidelines and local authority development plans, the requirements of the guidelines take precedence.

Whilst not all aspects of the 2015 Apartment Guidelines are mandatory, they identify a number of specific planning policy requirements that must be applied by local authorities. These include minimum apartment unit floor areas.

The 2015 guidelines therefore updated previous 2007 guidelines, which, in practice, had little if any real effect in terms of actual development, due to the post 2008 economic downturn and after which, despite challenging economic conditions, a number of local authorities set differing and higher minimum floor area standards.

The confusion of different standards and inconsistencies between local authorities, even within Dublin, and the cost implications of associated lift, access and parking requirements were considered by my Department to raise wider concerns about adverse impacts on the viability of new housing development generally and apartment development specifically, both in relation to public and private housing.

Housing, or more specifically tackling the lack of its provision, is the single biggest issue facing this Government and had my Department not acted in addressing the consistency issue, the plethora of ever escalating minimum floor area requirements and resultant uncertainty would have persisted, adversely impacting not only on supply, but supply at affordable prices.

My Department did engage in focused analysis of the apartment standards issue, which was published, building on its previous work and consultation on the 2007 guidelines. I am satisfied that the process followed was compliant with all relevant environmental obligations.