Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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574. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of Ministerial Orders to remove the residential category from zoned land under Section 31 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, in each year from 2020 to 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will provide each Ministerial Order, the local authority, the size of the land in hectares, and the permitted density of the residential zoning prior to the coming into force of the Section 31 Ministerial Order. [38973/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Section 31 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 empowers the Minister to direct a planning authority to take such measures as he or she may require to ensure that its development plan, or any local area plan made by it, complies with the requirements of the Act.

The use of this power is conditional on the Minister first receiving a formal recommendation on the matter from the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) and thereafter forming the opinion that one or more of the criteria set out in section 31(1) of the Act apply. These matters include, but are not limited to, where a plan fails to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, or a plan is not consistent with the objectives of the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES).

Since its establishment in April 2019, the OPR has had statutory responsibility for the evaluation and assessment of local authority plans in accordance with section 31P of the Act. The Office is statutorily independent of the Minister in the performance of this function pursuant to section 31R of the Act. In the exercise of its plan evaluation function, the OPR may make submissions to the relevant planning authority including such recommendations as it considers necessary to ensure effective co-ordination of national, regional and local planning requirements by the relevant planning authority in the discharge of its development planning function.

In accordance with the provisions of section 31AM(8) and section 31AO(7) of the Act, where it considers that it is merited, the OPR may recommend that the Minister exercise his or her function to issue a direction to a planning authority in relation to a particular plan. In such instances, the OPR issues a notice letter to the Minister setting out its recommendation.

Before a direction may be issued, the Minister must first issue a notice of intention to issue a direction to the planning authority concerned and provide it with a draft of the proposed direction. The draft direction is subject to a period of public consultation conducted by the local authority, which is required to prepare a report summarising submissions received, as well as documenting the views of the elected members and the recommendations of the chief executive. The OPR carefully considers this report, in addition to any submissions received directly from the elected members. Subsequent to the completion of these processes, the OPR makes a final written recommendation on the matter to the Minister.

The decision to issue, or not to issue, a final direction rests with the Minister, or the Minister of State where this function has been delegated, and written reasons are provided for the Minister’s decision in each scenario. The relevant decision (i.e. a direction, or a statement of reasons for not issuing a direction) is issued to the planning authority concerned, the relevant regional assembly and the OPR, in addition to being published online and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Further information on the direction process is available on the OPR’s website at: www.opr.ie/directions-process/.

Ministerial directions often concern a broad range of planning policy issues (e.g. flood risk, access to national roads, habitats, noise, and multiple zoning types) and accordingly my Department does not collate specific information relating to the area and permitted density of residential zoning affected by section 31 directions.

In the case of a development plan or a local area plan, the adopted plan does not take effect until 6 weeks after the plan is made. Any draft direction must be issued during this 6-week period, and where issued, it operates to prevent the proposed land-use zoning from coming into effect by virtue of section 31(6) of the Act. Furthermore, under sections 10(8) and 19(6) of the Act there is no presumption in law that any land zoned in a particular plan shall remain so zoned in any subsequent plan.

The table below lists the local authority plans in relation to which a final direction has issued on foot of a recommendation received from the OPR since its establishment in 2019.

The OPR maintains a regularly updated repository of direction related material on its website, including copies of directions issued by the Minister on foot of its recommendations. This can be accessed at the following link and also details the subject matter of each direction issued: www.opr.ie/recommendations-made-by-the-opr-to-the-minister/.