Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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81. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the rural housing guidelines; the timeline for publication of the guidelines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53905/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide an update on the progress being made to update and publish the rural housing planning guidelines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53881/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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98. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to urgently amend the national planning framework and the sustainable rural housing guidelines as county development plans are aligned with these national policies which prohibits many applicants building a family home on their own land and buying a site and building a permanent place of residence around the town or village where they live and work. [53909/25]

Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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109. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the consideration which has been given, in view of the review of planning in rural areas, has been given to ensuring that people can build homes on their own land in Carlow and Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53456/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 89, 98 and 109 together.

Rural Housing Guidelines were last issued in 2005 as Ministerial Guidelines under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. These Guidelines provide that people who are an intrinsic part of the rural community, on the basis of an economic or social need, should be facilitated in all rural areas. In areas under strong urban influence, the policy is to make provision for urban generated housing into cities, towns and villages. In a rural area suffering persistent and substantial population decline, the policy is to accommodate anyone wishing to build a house, subject to normal planning and environmental considerations.

Since the publication of the current Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines in 2005 (which continue to have effect in addition to subsequent clarifications and national policy changes in the National Planning Framework) there have been important changes to our planning system. Most notably, obligations under European Directives and international agreements relating to the management and protection of the environment and adapting to and mitigating climate change have become more central to the operation of the system.

Updated policy direction and guidance in respect of rural housing, initially in the form of a section 28 Guideline which will now be reviewed and prepared as a National Planning Statement, is currently being considered by my Department. The updated policy approach will expand on the high level spatial planning policy of the National Planning Framework (NPF), in particular on National Policy Objective (NPO) 28 which relates to rural housing. This objective makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence (i.e. areas within the commuter catchment of cities, large towns and centres of employment) on the one hand, and structurally weaker rural areas where population levels may be low or declining, on the other. NPO 28 is also aligned with the established approach whereby considerations of social or economic need are to be applied by planning authorities in rural areas under urban influence.

The draft National Planning Statement will set out relevant and consistent planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing, based on the high level policy framework set by the NPF.

While planning policy is a national, as opposed to an EU competence, due care is being taken to ensure the updated guidelines will not operate to conflict with fundamental EU freedoms, comply with EU environmental legislative requirements and have due regard to decisions of the European Court of Justice. The draft National Planning Statement will address these complex environmental and legal issues, while also providing a framework for the sustainable management of housing in rural areas.