Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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350. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of guidelines issued by his office and that of his predecessor under section 28 1(b) of the Planning and Development Act as amended in 2015; and the subject matter of each set of guidelines issued under this section. [22378/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Amendments to the Planning and Development Acts in 2015 enable 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.

This mechanism is provided for under Section 28(1C), not Section 28 1(b), of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended by the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015.

In this regard, the Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments - Guidelines for Planning Authorities, published in December 2015, are the only guidelines issued by my Department under Section 28 of the Act, as amended.

The 2015 Guidelines 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. 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.