Ryan calls for planning guidelines to be updated

Patricia Ryan TD has called on the Minister for Housing to publish updated guidelines on planning. In a recent Parliamentary Question to the Minister, Deputy Ryan asked when updated guidelines might be published. In response, the Minister has committed to publishing the guidelines next year. 

Patricia said “The current guidelines are over 13 years old, they were published during the Celtic Tiger era. We need guidelines that are relevant to the housing situation today. We need to ensure that developers provide an adequate bond and that we speed up the taking in charge process to ensure bonds are still active when estates are being taken in charge. And most importantly, we need to provide infrastructure before or at the same time as houses are being built. We need to plan for the future, taking into account increases in population and traffic. We also need to consider the effect that the current pandemic might have on future development.”

There have been significant changes in planning law since the guidelines were introduced, including the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018.