Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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398. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if, pursuant to section 10(2)(m) of the Planning and Development Act (2000), his Department has given consideration to the development of guidelines, in consultation with local authorities, that would provide relevant criteria and guidelines for the development and implementation of provisions in local authority development plans that are designed to ensure that the provision of private and social housing in Gaeltacht areas shall ensure the future sustainability of the Gaeltacht as Irish speaking areas. [29367/26]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Part 3 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, which has replaced the development plan provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000, sets out the obligation for local authorities to prepare strategies and include objectives, which must be addressed in the drafting of their Development Plan, governing local development policies in respect of any Gaeltacht area. Where there is a Gaeltacht area within the planning authority’s administrative area, the development plan strategy must include objectives for “the protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage, including the promotion of Irish as the community language”. Where a development plan sets out settlement-specific objectives in respect of any Gaeltacht area, a ‘Priority Area Plan’ will subsequently be introduced for that Gaeltacht area to guide its development, renewal or regeneration and to specify how the relevant settlement-specific objectives in the development plan are to be implemented.

As set out in Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030- An Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness, I intend to publish a National Planning Statement in the first half of 2027 in respect of housing in Gaeltacht areas.

Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provided that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage could issue guidelines to planning authorities regarding any of their functions under the Act and planning authorities were required to have regard to those guidelines in the performance of their functions.

That section was repealed on 2 October 2025 as the planning system transitions to operate under the new legislative provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2024.

Section 25 of the Act of 2024 provides for a new form of planning policy and guidance known as a National Planning Statement. This provision was commenced on 2 October 2025 and therefore future planning policy and guidance, including the new policy guidance for Gaeltacht Areas, will issue from the Minister to planning authorities in the form of a National Planning Statement.

An Interdepartmental Group (comprising my Department, the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (DRCDG) and Údarás na Gaeltachta) is continuing its work in developing specific planning guidance for Gaeltacht areas. There is also a separate Working Group made up of both Departments and Údarás na Gaeltachta and the relevant local authorities with Gaeltacht areas. Interdepartmental Group and Working Group meetings took place in 2023 and bilateral Departmental engagement continued into 2024 and into 2025, with the most recent meeting taking place in July 2025.

Having regard to the need to consider the complex matters involved and further to engagement with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, a finalised draft National Planning Statement will be assessed for the purposes of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA).

The Development Plans Guidelines for Local Authorities published in July 2022 also guidance to local authorities, including reflecting the Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas (Limistéar Pleanála Teanga – LPTs as required under the Gaeltacht Act 2012) as well as the inclusion of further policies such as the preparation of housing strategies that have particular regard to the needs of Gaeltacht residents, and ensuring that development proposals in Gaeltacht areas have a positive impact on the linguistic and cultural heritage that can be robustly assessed at planning application stage.

Furthermore, there are a number of actions in the Government’s Housing Action Plan that support increased housing delivery and housing choice through significant investment in the provision of social homes, making buying and renting more affordable, addressing vacancy and dereliction to bring homes back into use across the country, and increasing the supply of new housing stock across the Country, including in Gaeltacht areas.