More than two decades after being effectively banned, ribbon development looks set to be allowed to return to the Irish countryside from the autumn.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris confirmed to his party’s parliamentary meeting on Wednesday evening that the Cabinet will next week approve new rural housing guidelines that will lift many of the restrictions on one-off housing developments in rural Ireland.
A memo being brought to Cabinet by Minister for Housing James Browne and Minister of State John Cummins propose radical changes to the rules which will make it significantly easier to get planning permission for single houses in the countryside.
Under the proposals, people who can show they have an economic or social need to live in a rural location, including returning emigrants, will be entitled to build a house, subject to meeting normal planning considerations.
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Significantly, the memo is expected to state that refusals on grounds such as ribbon or backland development will no longer be allowed.
There will also be a loosening of the definition of what satisfies an economic or social need, thereby allowing more people to build in areas where they are from or where they work without the need to have an agricultural enterprise.
An average of 5,000 one-off houses are built in the State each year and it is estimated that the changes in planning rules could see an increase of as much as 50 per cent in volume.
Harris told the meeting the changes will represent “the most significant overhaul” of rural housing policy in two decades and will make it easier for families to build homes in rural communities.
He said the new approach will move away from unnecessarily restrictive planning practices and instead ensure applications are assessed on their individual merits.
There has been legislation restricting ribbon development extending back to 1935 but a substantial number of one-off houses were built in the Irish countryside from the 1970s until the early 2000s.
New rules introduced by the sustainable rural housing guidelines, introduced in 2005, heavily curtailed the practice, introducing stricter definitions of local and economic need, as well as tightening the criteria for permissible development.
Harris also told the meeting he would remind ministerial colleagues of the role departments and State agencies must play in tackling dereliction and bringing vacant properties back into use.
He said he and Browne would write jointly to Ministers in the coming weeks in advance of the introduction of the new derelict property tax.
The Tánaiste said every arm of the State must play its part in addressing dereliction and unlocking housing supply.
He said too many publicly-owned properties remain unused while families struggle to access housing, adding the Government must lead by example in bringing vacant buildings back into productive use.
