Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

123 Chapter 5: Land 4. Land use commitments and constraints 2 www.npf.ie/expert-group-report-on-the-national-planning-framework-published/ (accessed 2 July 2024). Ireland’s land use profile is influenced by economic activities, sociological factors, and national and regional policies and strategies. Some of the current range of policies and strategies that are highly relevant for land use are set out later in Table 5.3. Enacting national planning policies and legislation is done through planning legislation at the local level. The government’s long-term strategy for physical and spatial development and the built environment, Project Ireland 2040, was published in 2018 and a Draft First Revision to the National Planning Framework (NPF) was published in July 2024. Under Project Ireland 2040, the NPF guides development and land use investment. It influences the regional spatial and economic strategies of the three regional assemblies of local authorities. It also influences city and county development plans, local area plans and planning schemes in the strategic development zones of the 31 local authorities. The NPF sets high-level goals for managing the growth of Dublin, regional cities and the three regional assembly areas, for promoting sustainable rural regeneration and for promoting more compact urban development within the footprint of existing built- up areas to counteract a business-as-usual trend towards extensive urban expansion and urban sprawl. In tandem with the NPF, the National Development Plan 2021–2030 provides an investment framework (up to €165 billion) built around ten national strategic outcomes shared with the NPF under the overall Project Ireland 2040 initiative. An overview of the Irish planning system is set out in Figure 5.7. A development plan is the main public statement of planning policies for each county or city. It sets out the land use, amenity and development objectives and the policies of the planning authority for a given 6-year period. The plan consists of a written statement of objectives and includes maps that give a graphical representation of how the city or county will develop over the period. Local area plans provide more detailed planning policies for areas where significant development and change is anticipated. Local area plans must be compatible with national and regional guidance documents and the core strategy and policies of the development plan. The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) was established in 2019 as the independent oversight body for planning. The OPR reviews local authority development plans to ensure that they are consistent with relevant planning policies, including the NPF and the regional spatial and economic strategies, and to ensure compliance with environmental assessment and climate change obligations. An expert group recommended that the first revision of the NPF should build on the current NPF strategy and strengthen it in three main areas: 2 1. Compact growth targets should be more ambitious and more clearly defined. 2. The roles of the bodies involved in its implementation should be clarified and strengthened (particularly in relation to metropolitan area strategic plans) and mechanisms should be put in place for more detailed measurement and monitoring of its progress. 3. There should be greater coordination at whole-of- government level across all infrastructure projects (including the National Development Plan) and new efforts should be made to generate broader support for national spatial planning across all of society. The Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) recommendations, included in the Climate Action Plan 2024, also support more ambitious targets for compact growth (denser housing) and a reassessment of how compact growth is measured from a spatial perspective. The Council also calls for more incentivisation of urban brownfield development to limit urban sprawl and urgent investment in accessible public transport (CCAC, 2023).