Planner’s Take, 11 November 2026

A permission that is never built is not a home: why the planning pipeline needs watching

This is an editorial from BPS Planning, issued for discussion only.

For most of the past decade, the argument about housing in Ireland has been an argument about the planning system. The charges are familiar: too slow, too uncertain, too exposed to legal challenge. Deloitte's latest Crane Survey, reported this morning, offers a useful corrective. It does not say the planning system is the only problem. It says something more uncomfortable: that even the permissions we already have are not reliably turning into homes.

The headline figures are stark. Deloitte expects about 40,000 homes to be completed this year, a 10 per cent rise on 2025 and the highest level since 2008. That is real progress and deserves to be said plainly. But the Government's target is 300,000 homes by the end of 2030, which would leave around 260,000 to be built in four years. On Deloitte's reading, the State is on course to fall short by somewhere between 123,400 and 136,100 homes.

The reasoning behind that estimate matters more than the number. Over the last five years, 182,130 homes have been granted planning permission. Yet Central Bank analysis suggests that between a quarter and almost a third of permissions never commence at all. Apply that lapse rate, and the pipeline shrinks quickly. Add the usual delay between a grant and a first sod being turned, and it becomes clear why the report describes the next 12 to 18 months as critical.

For planners, this should shift the conversation. A grant of permission is often treated, in political debate and in council reports alike, as the finish line. It is not. A permission is an option to build, and options are exercised only when the numbers work: when finance can be raised, when construction costs are matched by achievable prices or rents, when water and wastewater connections are available, and when the developer has the capacity to start. Where any of those conditions fails, the permission sits on a file until it expires.

There is a further caution in the report. Deloitte notes that this year's strong completions owe something to the temporary waiver of development levies introduced in 2024, which requires homes to be completed by 31 December 2026. A deadline of that kind pulls activity forward. When it passes, some of the momentum may pass with it. It would be a mistake to read any dip next year as proof that planning reform has failed.

The counter-arguments deserve a fair hearing. The Government can point to rising completions, and yesterday the Department reported a 57 per cent rise in what it now calls Starter Home Supports, with Cost Rental delivery more than doubling in the first half of the year. Forecasts are not destiny, and the lapse rate drawn from earlier years may not hold in a market with more State involvement through the Land Development Agency, local authorities and approved housing bodies, which do not walk away from permissions in the same way. All of that is true, and the Deloitte figures should be read as a warning rather than a verdict.

But the warning points to practical work. Councils already record commencement notices; that information should be brought together with grant data, regularly and in public, so that everyone can see how many permitted homes are actually under way in each county and why the rest are stalled. Where the obstacle is infrastructure, the answer is targeted investment in water, wastewater and transport, programmed alongside zoning rather than after it. Where the obstacle is viability, the honest response is to say so, and to decide openly whether the State will close the gap through cost rental, affordable purchase or direct delivery.

None of this is an argument for granting less, or for weakening the scrutiny that good decisions require. Ireland needs a steady flow of sound permissions in the right places. It is an argument for measuring the right thing. The number of homes permitted is a measure of the planning system's output; the number of homes started is a measure of whether that output is useful. For as long as a quarter or more of permitted homes are never built, the State is not short of permissions so much as short of the conditions that turn them into front doors.

The next year and a half will show whether the recent rise in completions is a turning point or a peak shaped by a deadline. Planners cannot control interest rates or construction costs, but we can insist on clearer evidence of what happens after the decision is made. That would be a modest reform, and more useful than blaming the system for homes it has already approved.

Irish Town Planner Planning News Roundup, 11 November 2026

Here is today's round-up of town planning news from around Ireland, covering a Deloitte warning that the 2030 housing target will be missed by more than 120,000 homes, permission for a 12-turbine wind farm near Bruff, a 57% rise in Starter Home Supports, ten social homes approved in south Finglas, an appeal against seven homes on Drogheda's North Road, and a refusal for a mixed-use building on Arklow's Harbour Road.

Deloitte warns 2030 housing target likely to be missed by more than 120,000 homes

Deloitte's latest Crane Survey says the Government is likely to fall short of its target of 300,000 new homes by 2030 by between 123,400 and 136,100 homes, largely because planning permissions are "not keeping pace". While 182,130 homes were granted permission over the last five years, Central Bank data indicate that 25 to 32 per cent of permissions never commence, and the report estimates 40,000 completions this year, a 10 per cent rise on 2025. Deloitte says the next 12 to 18 months are critical and notes that recent completions have been driven in part by the development levy waiver, which requires construction to be completed by 31 December 2026.

Source: The Irish Times (11 November 2026) (https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/11/11/government-likely-to-miss-2030-housing-target-by-more-than-120000-units/)

Commission grants 12-turbine Ballinlee wind farm near Bruff

An Coimisiún Pleanála has granted permission for Ballinlee Green Energy's 12-turbine wind farm near Bruff, Co Limerick, with a generating capacity of about 53.6MW and an expected 35-year operating life, despite 309 objecting submissions citing noise, flicker and the 179 homes within 1km of the site. The inspectors' 500-page report found no evidence of health-related effects from wind turbines, and noted that night-time noise would exceed the Limerick County Development Plan limit but fall within the 2006 national guidelines. The scheme was reduced from 17 turbines to protect whooper swans feeding near Lough Gur, and a local action group is to meet this week to discuss challenging the decision.

Source: Irish Examiner (10 November 2026) (https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41935797.html)

Starter Home Supports up 57% in first half of 2026, Department says

Minister for Housing James Browne announced that 4,699 Starter Home Supports were delivered in the first six months of 2026, up 57% on the 2,980 in the same period last year. The term covers the Starter Home Purchase Scheme (565 homes), Cost Rental (1,399 homes, more than double last year's figure), the First Home Scheme (996 supports) and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant (1,739 grants). The opposition accused the Government of repackaging the figures and described them as "woefully inadequate".

Source: Department of Housing (10 November 2026) (https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/57-rise-in-starter-home-supports-delivered-in-first-half-of-2026-minister-browne/); TheJournal.ie (10 November 2026) (https://www.thejournal.ie/housing-figures-spin-7221740-Nov2026/)

Ten own-door social homes approved for long-neglected Finglas site

Dublin City Council has approved ten social homes on a 0.3-hectare former play area at Berryfield Drive and Valeview Gardens in south Finglas, a site a council report described as a focus for vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The two-storey, U-shaped scheme has two terraces of six two-bedroom houses with four one-bedroom apartments, all with their own front doors, and Berryfield Drive will be reconfigured into two cul-de-sacs. The works include a new vehicular entrance from Cardiffsbridge Road, relocation of a bus stop, sustainable drainage and upgrades to the Valeview Gardens open space, close to the proposed St Helena's stop on the Luas Green Line extension.

Source: Dublin Live (10 November 2026) (https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/ten-new-social-homes-approved-34890549)

Third-party appeal against seven homes on Drogheda's North Road

Louth County Council granted permission to James McKevitt and Keith O'Leary for seven houses at Nos. 47 and 50 North Road, Drogheda, on a site that includes a protected structure. The scheme comprises four semi-detached three-bedroom houses and three terraced four-bedroom houses, with the demolition of two outbuildings, a new internal road, parking and open space. A local resident has lodged a third-party appeal with An Coimisiún Pleanála, which is due to decide it by 11 March 2027.

Source: Irish Independent (11 November 2026) (https://www.independent.ie/county/louth/appeal-lodged-against-seven-home-north-road-development-in-drogheda/a/164210477.html)

Arklow mixed-use scheme refused over overshadowing and pedestrian safety

Wicklow County Council has refused permission for a new mixed-use building at 22-25 Harbour Road, Arklow, citing concerns about overshadowing of neighbouring properties and pedestrian safety. The proposal would have replaced an existing commercial unit with two ground-floor commercial units and two two-bedroom apartments.

Source: Irish Independent (11 November 2026) (https://www.independent.ie/county/wicklow/mixed-use-wicklow-development-refused-planning-over-impact-on-neighbouring-homes/a/164020177.html)

Planner’s Take, 10 November 2026

Cork's North Main Street shows how slowly dereliction is resolved, even when councils use their powers

This is an editorial from BPS Planning, issued for discussion only.

There is a particular kind of failure that no single decision causes. Work was due to begin last night on taking down Nos. 62 to 65 North Main Street in Cork, a terrace that has stood empty and decaying for more than a decade. The council is acting on an engineers' report that found loose and missing masonry, rotten embedded timbers, cracking and displacement, and corrosion in the temporary system holding up the retained façades. The engineers described an immediate public-safety concern and a credible risk of partial collapse. On that advice, demolition is plainly the responsible course. The harder question is how it came to this.

The chronology is worth setting out. The four buildings were entered on the derelict sites register in December 2015. In June 2019, No. 63 partially collapsed, and the council stepped in with emergency works, removing the rear structures of Nos. 63 and 64 and installing a steel frame to hold up the street front. It then moved to acquire all four properties compulsorily, and An Bord Pleanála confirmed the acquisition, finding each structure to be in a ruinous and dangerous condition. The properties vested in the council in 2022. A tender for development proposals was launched in May of this year and has now been ended because of the latest engineering advice. Eleven years after registration, the site is about to become a cleared plot, with no developer in place.

This is not a story of simple inaction. The council used the tools the Derelict Sites Act 1990 gives it: registration, emergency works and compulsory acquisition. Each step was lawful and, by the standards of the Irish system, reasonably pursued. That is what makes the case instructive. If a city council that does what the legislation asks still ends up demolishing a terrace in one of its oldest streets more than a decade later, the problem lies less with any one official than with the pace and sequencing of the process itself.

For practice, three lessons stand out. The first is that time is not neutral for derelict buildings. Every winter of water getting into old masonry and timber narrows the options. The temporary steel frame installed in 2019 was a holding measure, and holding measures corrode. A façade that might have been retained in 2016 or 2019 may not be safe to keep in 2026. The question of what to do with a site has to be answered while there is still a building worth saving.

The second is that acquisition is not the same as regeneration. Vesting the properties in the council in 2022 solved the ownership problem, but it did not supply a scheme, a funder or a builder. A tender launched almost three years after vesting suggests that the end use had not been settled when the acquisition began. Councils pursuing derelict sites should, where they can, have a realistic redevelopment route worked out in parallel with the legal process, whether that means their own housing programme, an approved housing body, a State agency or a private partner.

The third concerns the wider city. Derelict buildings on a main street are not only a private loss. They depress neighbouring property, deter investment and send a signal about how a place is cared for. North Main Street was the subject of an anti-dereliction protest last year, a reminder that the cost is felt well beyond the four addresses concerned.

There are fair counter-arguments. Compulsory acquisition interferes with constitutionally protected property rights, and it is right that it should be subject to proper procedure and independent confirmation. Old buildings in poor condition can be genuinely difficult and costly to save, and no council can be expected to underwrite every one. And it may be said that a cleared, publicly owned site in a city centre is not a bad position from which to start again.

All of that is true. But it is not an argument for accepting an eleven-year cycle as normal. The legal powers to tackle dereliction already exist, including the derelict sites levy and compulsory acquisition. What is too often missing is the speed, resourcing and forward planning that turn those powers into new homes and active ground floors.

The test now is what follows demolition. The council says it remains fully committed to securing the redevelopment of this key city centre site. A clear timetable, a defined end use and a funding route, published soon, would show that the lesson has been learned. A fenced-off gap on North Main Street for another decade would show that it has not.

Irish Town Planner Planning News Roundup, 10 November 2026

Here is today's round-up of town planning news from around Ireland, covering a 2028 construction start for the Galway city ring road and the end of the challenge to Galway Harbour's extension, leave for a judicial review of paid parking at Blanchardstown, demolition of derelict buildings on Cork's North Main Street, a call for a national self-build pathway, plans for 69 homes in Falcarragh, and permission for a machinery auction centre in Portlaoise.

Galway ring road works expected in 2028 as harbour extension challenge is dropped

Construction of the N6 Galway City Ring Road is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2028, Galway City Council's Director of Services Derek Pender told a council meeting, with a construction tender envisaged for mid to late 2027 and enabling works, such as fencing and the relocation of utilities, highly probable next year. Separately, active travel campaigner Shane Foran has withdrawn his High Court challenge to An Coimisiún Pleanála's approval of the Galway Harbour extension, after the city council and Galway Harbour Company agreed to examine better cycling links on Lough Atalia Road and to commission feasibility studies on cycling routes through the harbour lands. Councillors were told the agreements showed the value of dialogue in avoiding costly legal challenges, while concerns were raised about offers to homeowners whose properties are subject to compulsory purchase orders along the ring road route.

Source: RTÉ News (9 November 2026) (https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2026/1109/1598579-galway-ring-road/); The Irish Times (9 November 2026) (https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/11/09/galway-man-drops-challenge-to-harbour-expansion-after-securing-cycling-route-commitments/)

TD granted leave for judicial review of Blanchardstown paid parking approval

Ruth Coppinger TD has been granted leave by the High Court to seek a judicial review of An Coimisiún Pleanála's September decision to permit a paid parking barrier system at Blanchardstown Town Centre. Her counsel argued that insufficient consideration had been given to the development plan objectives for Major Town Centre zoning, the lack of local transport links, social inclusion and the net loss of 97 trees. The Commission's inspector had found that controlled parking could reasonably be regarded as a way of managing demand for car travel and parking in an established Major Town Centre.

Source: TheJournal.ie (9 November 2026) (https://www.thejournal.ie/ruth-coppinger-judicial-review-blanchardstown-shopping-centre-parking-charges-7220858-Nov2026/)

Cork City Council to demolish derelict terrace on North Main Street

Cork City Council is to demolish Nos. 62 to 65 North Main Street, a long-derelict terrace, after consultant engineers warned that the buildings and retained façades posed an immediate public-safety concern, with a credible risk of partial collapse. The buildings were entered on the derelict sites register in December 2015, acquired by compulsory purchase and vested in the council in 2022, and a tender for development proposals begun in May has now been terminated. Work began on 9 November and is expected to take up to eight weeks, with a footpath closure and the temporary loss of six parking spaces; the council says it remains committed to the site's redevelopment.

Source: Irish Examiner (9 November 2026) (https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/developmentconstruction/arid-41935287.html)

Oireachtas housing committee to hear call for a national self-build pathway

Harrison Gardner, presenter of RTÉ's Build Your Own Home, is to tell the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage today that the State should fund hands-on training for self-builders through Education and Training Boards, local authorities and community groups. He will ask the committee to recommend a national self-build pathway in the Government's housing plan, with a register in every council of people and groups who want to build their own homes. The meeting, on sustainable methods of construction and issues in the construction sector, will also hear from the Irish Green Building Council and the Construction Industry Federation.

Source: TheJournal.ie (10 November 2026) (https://www.thejournal.ie/harrison-gardner-self-build-7220842-Nov2026/)

Plans lodged for 69 homes, mostly social, at Falcarragh

B&E Hone Construction Ltd has applied to Donegal County Council for 69 homes at Radharc Ná Trá, Falcarragh, comprising 55 social homes and 14 private houses. The mix is 49 two-bed homes, seven three-bed, twelve four-bed and one five-bed group home. Permission is also sought for the continued use of an existing vehicular entrance and access road built in connection with an earlier development.

Source: Donegal Daily (9 November 2026) (https://www.donegaldaily.com/lead-stories/plans-submitted-for-new-69-house-estate-in-west-donegal-657436)

Machinery auction centre granted in Portlaoise enterprise park

Laois County Council has granted Tamar Selby Ltd, a subsidiary of the Euro Auctions Group, permission with 23 conditions for a plant machinery auction facility at the council's National Enterprise Park at Knockmay, Portlaoise. The scheme includes a 2,178 sq m showroom, auction arena and office building, a 3,389 sq m workshop building, machinery storage yards, parking and a nature-based surface water management system. The facility is expected to employ 54 people and hold 36 auctions a year; the council had sought further information on operating hours, parking, lighting, a road safety audit and the choice of location.

Source: Laois Live (9 November 2026) (https://www.ireland-live.ie/midlands/laois-live/plant-machinery-auctioneering-company-gets-green-light-for-huge-outlet-in-portlaoise-9340415)

Irish Town Planner Planning News Roundup, 9 November 2026

Here is today's round-up of town planning news from around Ireland, covering the stalled State design manual for medium-density, own-door housing, Department of Finance concerns about debt at approved housing bodies, permission for 24 homes at Lismore, staff accommodation approved at Rosapenna, retention permission for a Falcarragh beer garden, and research on strengthening Irish timber for house building.

State design manual for 'Stoneybatter-style' housing remains unfinished

A design manual intended to help developers and planners apply the 2024 compact settlement guidelines, and to deliver own-door, medium-density housing where apartments are not viable, remains unfinished despite the Department of Housing telling local authorities, An Coimisiún Pleanála and the Office of the Planning Regulator in January 2024 that it would be published that spring. Tony Reddy, chair of Property Industry Ireland, says he understands the work has stalled and that only about a month of work is needed to complete it; the Department says work is ongoing "having regard to Government priorities and available resources" and would not give a completion date. The manual is being prepared with the RIAI, Irish and UK planning professionals, local authorities and the National Town Centre First Office; the RIAI has said low-rise schemes of about 30 to 80 own-door homes per hectare could foster Ranelagh and Stoneybatter-style neighbourhoods.

Source: The Irish Times (9 November 2026) (https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/11/09/state-manual-to-support-stoneybatter-style-housing-as-alternative-to-apartments-unfinished/)

Department of Finance raises concerns over debt at approved housing bodies

The most senior official at the Department of Finance, John Hogan, has raised concerns with his Department of Housing counterpart, Graham Doyle, about the State's growing exposure to debt at approved housing bodies, after the housing body Circle stopped work on two construction projects in Dublin. In a letter during the summer, he said that with "a live case with potential system implications", the absence of detailed information was a matter of concern. Circle is in talks with Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council about the future of its projects at Marrowbone Lane and Santry; the sector owned or managed almost 77,000 homes in 2025, with another 22,000 planned in the years to 2028.

Source: The Irish Times (9 November 2026) (https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/11/09/top-housing-officials-worried-about-billions-of-euro-in-debt-racked-up-by-housing-bodies/)

24 homes granted at Railway Gardens, Lismore

Waterford City and County Council has granted Horizon Tip Limited permission, with 22 conditions, for 24 homes at Railway Gardens, Station Road, Lismore: ten semi-detached two-storey houses, one detached bungalow and 13 terraced houses. Existing house bases at Nos. 30 to 35 and No. 37 will be demolished, and the scheme includes a service road, footpaths, public lighting, a two-metre boundary wall and works to open space and foul water services in the adjoining estate. The application was lodged on 13 November 2025 and permission was granted on 4 November.

Source: Waterford Live (8 November 2026) (https://www.waterfordlive.ie/news/planning-permission-granted-for-new-housing-development-in-waterford-9332252)

Rosapenna granted staff accommodation as an 'operational necessity'

Donegal County Council has granted Rosapenna Hotel (1962) Ltd permission for a single-storey building providing ancillary staff accommodation, with eight bedrooms and communal living space, at the golf resort near Downings. The applicant's architect said the resort has to recruit staff from abroad because of a local labour shortage and currently buys or rents ordinary homes in Downings to house them, and argued that dedicated accommodation would free that housing for permanent residents; local councillor Ciaran Brogan supported the application. The permission carries nine conditions, including a development contribution of €3,348.

Source: Donegal Live (6 November 2026) (https://www.donegallive.ie/news/top-donegal-golf-resort-obtains-planning-for-operational-necessity-9335899)

Retention permission for Falcarragh beer garden

Donegal County Council has granted retention permission for a beer garden at The Corner Bar in Falcarragh, described in the application as an unauthorised development ancillary to the main bar, including single-storey structures and a timber-screened fence along the rear boundary. Permission was also sought for picnic tables and benches on the footpath. The grant carries five conditions, including a development contribution of €1,471.37.

Source: Donegal Live (7 November 2026) (https://www.donegallive.ie/news/west-donegal-pub-obtains-planning-permission-to-keep-beer-garden-9336141)

Analysis: could strengthened Irish timber help deliver homes?

In an analysis piece, Professor Michael Morris of the AMBER research centre at Trinity College Dublin notes that fewer than a quarter of homes built in Ireland are timber frame, about half the rate elsewhere in the developed world, and that fast-grown Irish Sitka spruce is generally too low in density for external or load-bearing uses. His team is developing methods to remove and replace lignin so that Irish wood can be compressed into a much stronger material, and he argues this could support a domestic timber construction economy, since about 80% of home-grown timber is currently exported.

Source: RTÉ Brainstorm (8 November 2026) (https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2026/1108/1543629-timber-building-ireland-housing-futureville/)

Ireland’s apartment standards: what has changed, and what has not

This is an editorial from BPS Planning, issued for discussion only.

On 4 November 2026 the Minister for Housing, James Browne, and the Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, John Cummins, issued the Planning Design Standards for Apartments as a National Planning Statement under section 25 of the Planning and Development Act 2024. It is easy to read this as a new set of rules, but there have been two separate events. The substantive cuts and relaxations to apartment design standards were made in July 2025. What changed this month is the legal vehicle carrying those standards, and the point in the process at which they bite.

What happened in July 2025

The Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities were issued on 8 July 2025 under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. They replaced the Sustainable Urban Housing guidelines last updated in December 2022, with a July 2023 amendment on Build-to-Rent transition. The stated aim was to protect quality while improving the viability of apartment delivery, long identified by the Department as a weak point in housing supply.

The changes were real ones. The minimum studio fell from 37 square metres to 32, partly, the Department said, because the old studio was only 8 square metres smaller than a one-bedroom unit.

A new unit type was added: a three-bedroom, four-person apartment of 76 square metres. The full set of minimum floor areas is now: studio 32 square metres; one bedroom (two persons) 45; two bedroom (three persons) 63; two bedroom (four persons) 73; three bedroom (four persons) 76; and three bedroom (five persons) 90. Development plans may not set higher minimums.

Controls on unit mix were removed. Under the 2022 guidelines, a scheme could include up to 50 per cent one-bedroom or studio units, with studios limited to between 20 and 25 per cent of the total, and two-bedroom, three-person units were capped at 10 per cent of a private development. Since 2025 there has been no minimum or maximum for any bedroom number, and development plans cannot restrict mix, except for social housing, Part V housing and housing for older persons, where a mix may be required, for example on foot of a Housing Need and Demand Assessment.

The dual aspect requirement was reduced. The old position was a minimum of 33 per cent dual aspect units in more central and accessible locations and generally 50 per cent in suburban or intermediate locations. That became a single minimum of 25 per cent, with an emphasis on the larger units being the dual aspect ones where feasible. For refurbishment schemes on sites of any size and urban infill sites of up to 0.25 hectares, the planning authority may accept less, case by case, subject to overall design quality. The standard concerns the aspect of units; it is not a rule about the number of windows.

The cap of 12 apartments per floor per core was removed, and plans may no longer set any units-per-core requirement. That is a planning change only: accessibility and fire safety under the Building Regulations still govern cores.

The share of units that must be larger than the minimum was cut. The 2022 guidelines required the majority of apartments in a scheme of 10 or more units to exceed the minimum floor area by at least 10 per cent. In 2025 this became at least 25 per cent.

Finally, a planning authority may accept reduced provision of balconies where high quality, usable communal open space is provided and the amenity value of a balcony would be negligible, for example on units facing major sources of noise and air pollution, or on taller façades exposed to high wind. Even then, the number of units without direct access to private amenity space should not exceed 50 per cent. This is a discretion, not an entitlement to omit balconies.

What the November 2026 statement changes

The new National Planning Statement carries those standards forward with the same numbers. What has changed is their legal footing.

The 2025 document contained Specific Planning Policy Requirements under section 28 of the 2000 Act. The new statement is in two parts. Its eight National Planning Policies and Measures, NPPM 1 to NPPM 8, cover apartment mix, floor areas, dual aspect, ground floor ceiling heights, lift and stair cores, communal, community and cultural facilities, co-living and student accommodation. Regional strategies and development plans must be "materially consistent" with these. The remainder is National Planning Policy Guidance, which plans must "take due account of". That includes the recommended storage, amenity space and room dimension tables. A recommended minimum in an appendix should not be treated as if it were a measure.

Within two months, each planning authority and regional assembly must report to the Office of the Planning Regulator on whether its plan is materially consistent with the measures, and set out how any inconsistency will be removed.

There is one notable softening in wording. The 2025 guidelines said at least 25 per cent of units "shall" exceed the minimum floor area by 10 per cent. The statement says they "should". The expectation does not apply to schemes of fewer than ten units, to refurbishment schemes, or to urban infill on sites up to 0.25 hectares, and for schemes of 10 to 49 units it may be reduced or removed case by case.

Timing: decision date, not lodgement date

The most practical change concerns which applications are caught. In July 2025, Departmental Circular NSP 04/2025 said the 2025 guidelines applied to applications submitted from 9 July 2025, and that files already in the system would be decided under the earlier guidelines. The new statement takes the opposite approach. It applies to any application for planning permission, and to any appeal or direct application to An Coimisiún Pleanála, determined after 4 November 2026. A scheme lodged in September and still awaiting a decision is therefore assessed against the statement.

How the statement will interact with development plans once Part 4 of the 2024 Act commences is untested. Until plans are brought into line, it is prudent to identify any conflicting local standard rather than assume it falls away.

What has not changed

A good deal has been retained. The minimum ground floor ceiling height remains 2.7 metres, and plans may not require more. Above ground floor the statement refers to the 2.4 metres generally suggested in Technical Guidance Document F. For refurbishment and small urban infill schemes, the 2.7 metre figure may be relaxed case by case.

The recommended storage and amenity space figures are unchanged: storage of 3, 3, 5, 6, 6 and 9 square metres across the six unit types, from studio to the five-person three-bed, and private amenity space of 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 and 9 square metres, with communal amenity space recommended at the same figures. These sit in the guidance, with discretion for refurbishment and infill schemes.

Car and bicycle parking are not set by the statement. Both are referred to the Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlement Guidelines 2024, with car parking to be minimised, substantially reduced or wholly eliminated in well-served locations.

Communal, community and cultural facilities may only be required in locations identified in the development plan, not on a blanket threshold basis. The presumption against co-living continues unless a planning authority has identified specific demand through a Housing Need and Demand Assessment. Student accommodation now has its own chapter and measure, but the standards themselves, including study bedrooms of 8 square metres without an en-suite and 11.5 square metres with one, were already in the 2025 guidelines.

The legal challenge

The 2025 guidelines were the subject of judicial review proceedings, and questions were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Those proceedings are ongoing. The Ministers have said the statement is issued "strictly without prejudice" to them, and it was accompanied by a precautionary strategic environmental assessment. Issuing the statement does not end the case or answer the questions referred.

What this means in practice

For applicants, check the decision date of any live file. Applications should show plainly how each measure is met: unit mix, the area of every unit, which units exceed the minimum by 10 per cent, aspect, storage and amenity space. Where the design relies on the discretion available for refurbishment, small infill sites or reduced balconies, the design case should be made rather than assumed, because these are judgements for the planning authority and An Coimisiún Pleanála, not automatic entitlements.

For planning authorities, the immediate job is the consistency report to the Office of the Planning Regulator.

Smaller minimums are minimums, not targets. Viability is a legitimate aim, but lower standards do not guarantee lower prices for buyers or renters, and the homes being permitted now will be lived in for decades. The schemes that serve their residents well will be those that use the new flexibility carefully: larger units where families are likely to live, real daylight, generous storage, and communal space that people actually use.

Sources

Planning Design Standards for Apartments National Planning Statement, 2026 (final, PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/06ccfd53/1._Planning_Design_Standards_for_Apartments_NPS_Final.pdf)

Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2025 (PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/Planning_Design_Standards_for_Apartments_080725_FINAL.pdf)

Circular NSP 04/2025, transitional arrangements (PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/Apartment_Guidelines_Circular_NSP_04.pdf)

Sustainable Urban Housing (Design Standards for New Apartments, 2022 (PDF): https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/sustainable-urban-housing-design-standards-for-new-apartments-guidelines-for-planning-.pdf)

Department of Housing press release, 4 November 2026 (https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/national-planning-statement-on-apartment-standards-issued-by-minister-browne-and-minister-of-state-john-cummins/)

Planner’s Take, 8 November 2026

Wicklow’s turn: making national housing policy work on the ground

This is an editorial from BPS Planning, issued for discussion only.

It is Wicklow’s turn now. Changes in national housing policy are working their way into the county’s development plan, and the difficult business of translating national ambition into places where people can live has arrived at the council’s door. This is not a county inventing a problem for itself. It is a local authority being asked to make a national response to the housing crisis work on particular sites, in particular towns, with infrastructure that cannot be conjured into existence by a vote.

I should declare my interest. Wicklow is my home county, and BPS Planning, my firm, has made submissions to this process. We work throughout Ireland. That gives this debate a particular personal and professional importance for me, but the underlying difficulty is national, not a Wicklow exception.

Variation No. 7 is intended to bring the County Development Plan into line with revised government housing targets, including 2,068 homes a year up to 2034. The process has attracted more than 860 submissions. Behind those numbers are households waiting for homes, communities considering what growth will mean, and a council trying to reconcile demands that do not arrive with matching resources or timetables.

The agency responses show the difficulty. Uisce Éireann has identified significant water and wastewater upgrades needed for several proposed residential lands, some potentially beyond the current plan’s lifetime. The National Transport Authority has questioned public transport provision in some growth areas. Transport Infrastructure Ireland has raised concerns about proposed residential zoning beside the N81 in Blessington. These are practical questions about delivery, not evidence that Wicklow is unwilling to accommodate homes.

The everyday transport picture is familiar to me: trains are full and there are not enough buses. Add new homes without improving those choices and the pressure will be felt immediately by the people already travelling and those moving in. Housing and infrastructure must go hand in hand everywhere. Water, wastewater, rail and buses are not optional extras to be considered after the keys have been handed over.

It is a very tough job for the council. Who would envy having to reconcile urgent housing need, national targets, local concerns and infrastructure decisions substantially dependent on other bodies? Councillors and officials cannot build railway capacity or commission a treatment plant merely by adopting a zoning. Holding them responsible for the entire chain is convenient for national debate, but it is not an honest account of how delivery works.

Yet the answer cannot be to wait until every difficulty has disappeared. The shortage of homes is urgent. Infrastructure planning and land-use planning need to advance together, with credible sequencing rather than a choice between speculative promises and indefinite postponement. A warning about capacity should trigger decisions about investment, timing and alternatives, not become a permanent reason for leaving people without homes.

My recent Ballymun essay returned to a lesson that belongs in this discussion: homes alone do not make supported neighbourhoods. Services, connections, management and sustained investment shape what living in a place actually means. That is not a comparison between Wicklow and Ballymun’s history. It is a basic responsibility wherever we build, whether on a large urban estate or beside a growing county town.

We must get better at forward planning nationally. Revised housing expectations should be accompanied by coordinated, funded programmes for the infrastructure they imply. The question should be which agency will deliver what, with what funding and in what sequence, not simply which council will absorb the additional housing number. Schools, healthcare, energy and community facilities also belong in that conversation. National policy has to follow the housing target all the way to the ordinary working day of the household expected to live there.

Wicklow’s task is to turn this round of national policy change into deliverable communities. Its council deserves scrutiny, but also practical support, realistic commitments and partners able to deliver. The county cannot be expected to close a national coordination gap on its own. If this is Wicklow’s turn to plan for more homes, it must also be the State’s turn to help make those homes work.