Ireland

National Policy Picture

Project Ireland 2040, Building Ireland's Future is the overarching policy and framework for the social, economic, and cultural development of Ireland. This is against the backdrop of an expected one million increase in population by 2040, meaning a corresponding need to supply hundreds of thousands of new jobs, new homes, social amenities, better regional connectivity, and improvements in environmental sustainability. It seeks to guide strategic planning and development at a high-level, in enabling all parts of Ireland to realise their full potential. In doing this, it seeks to be best informed by the needs and requirements of society, therefore moving away from the status quo and current developer-led approach to development.

Stemming from the above plan is the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2030. The NPF sets the vision and strategy for the country through to 2024 whereas the NDP helps provide the investment to enable the implementation of the strategy.

As part of Project Ireland 2040, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (with a key responsibility for national planning) oversees the implementation of an Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF). It aims to support the compact growth and sustainable development of Ireland’s five cities and other large urban areas. Following the objectives of the NPF, the Fund seeks to leverage a greater proportion of residential and commercial development, supported by infrastructure, services and amenities within the existing built ‘footprint’ of larger settlements.

Regional Policy Picture

Ireland’s three Regional Assemblies are the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, the Southern Regional Assembly and the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. As well as Managing Authority functions and national contact point roles on EU funds such as Interregs, the creation and implementation of Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSES) are key functions of this regional tier of government. Sitting beneath the National Planning Framework in the policy pyramid, RSES set down the strategic regional development framework in each of the three regions in Ireland. RSES are vital in the implementation of Project Ireland 2040 and assist in achieving balanced regional development. Each RSES sets out regional growth centres and the key towns whose complementary development and regeneration will assist in realising effective regional development.

The Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) require all City and County Development Plans and subsequent variations to be aligned with their region’s RSES and national policy, thus seeing draft development plans (or proposed variations) first submitted to the relevant Regional Assembly. Upon considering the consistency of the submittal with the RSES, the Regional Assembly can make formal recommendations on the type of amendments it perceives necessary to ensure consistency between the development plan’s proposed variation and the RSES.