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Council decisions to enter a new zone of common sense

14 January 2013

DECIDING that thousands of hectares of land is no longer suitable for housing has not been an easy process.

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Local authorities have spent more than a year re-drawing their city and county development plans to make these landbanks no longer eligible for planning, and there have been hiccups along the way.

Planning minister Jan O'Sullivan has been forced to intervene twice, telling Clare County Council to dezone land for housing because it threatened a protected bat species, and informing Laois County Council that land in Mountmellick on a flood plain was not suitable for new houses or apartments.

Of course, councils should never have zoned more than 40,000 hectares of land for housing. Had it been developed, there would now be 1.4 million extra homes in the State, almost twice the current number.

The fact that there are more than 1,700 unfinished developments across the country in areas far removed from towns and villages is testament to the bad decisions that were taken.

Take Donegal, for example. It had 2,806 hectares zoned for housing, enough for 98,000 new homes, in a county far removed from major centres of population. It now has 1,362 hectares – sufficient for 48,000.

Zoning is a complex process. Permitted uses for land are set out in county and city development plans, which essentially designate five types of zoning: agriculture, amenity and recreational, residential, commercial and industrial.

A residential zoning does not mean only houses and apartments are allowed. Bookies' offices, B&Bs, cemeteries and other uses are also permitted.

Zoning is a function reserved for councillors, but most have never had formal training.

That's set to change next year, when training and education will be provided.

Good practice – and the system being implemented now means that homes should only be built on land close to areas of demand, with the required public services in place.

The thousands of people living in unfinished ghost estates would concur.

Irish Independent

Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

More in Analysis(1 of 20 articles)

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter Read More

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Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter

When I heard Donal Walsh had died, I couldn't help thinking of Spike Milligan's line: I told you I was sick. For those of us who didn't know Donal, who didn't live with his illness and see its progress, there was a strange sense of surprise that he had really died, that his young life was actually snuffed out in the end. Obviously everyone knew Donal was dying. His imminent death was central to the life-affirming message he brought to the nation. But somehow, when the inevitable came, it was a shock. I suppose this young man, whom none of us really knew but we all felt we knew, didn't seem like the type to die.

Colm McCarthy: Retirement age must rise by eight or 10 years

Since 2008, economic policy in Ireland has been understandably focused upon the deflation of the bank credit bubble and its budgetary consequences. But Ireland faces serious economic policy problems which pre-date the financial crisis. Two reports released in recent weeks highlight one of the most serious – the unsustainable current system of retirement income provision. State pension schemes are unfunded (the social insurance 'fund' is just a book entry in the State accounts) and reliant entirely on the health of future tax revenues. If these fail to grow strongly, the State will struggle to meet pension commitments to its own employees and to the wider public who are covered by the contributory and non-contributory old-age pension schemes.

Paul Moran: Labour still between rock and a hard place

Our latest opinion poll, conducted earlier this month, shows little change in terms of party support, with most of them tipping along at more or less the same position as last month. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have slipped back (an insignificant) one point, with Sinn Fein the apparent beneficiary. It is as you were for both Labour and the independents. There has been some stabilisation of the Labour vote over the past couple of months, stalling the steady decline that we witnessed earlier in the year.

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Donal Walsh during his appearance on RTE's Saturday Night SHow with Brendan O'Connoe. Picture courtesy RTE

Brendan O'Connor: He took what life he had and made it matter

When I heard Donal Walsh had died, I couldn't help thinking of Spike Milligan's line: I told you I was sick. For those of us who didn't know Donal, who didn't live with his illness and see its progress, there was a strange sense of surprise that he had really died, that his young life was actually snuffed out in the end. Obviously everyone knew Donal was dying. His imminent death was central to the life-affirming message he brought to the nation. But somehow, when the inevitable came, it was a shock. I suppose this young man, whom none of us really knew but we all felt we knew, didn't seem like the type to die.

Colm McCarthy: Retirement age must rise by eight or 10 years

Since 2008, economic policy in Ireland has been understandably focused upon the deflation of the bank credit bubble and its budgetary consequences. But Ireland faces serious economic policy problems which pre-date the financial crisis. Two reports released in recent weeks highlight one of the most serious – the unsustainable current system of retirement income provision. State pension schemes are unfunded (the social insurance 'fund' is just a book entry in the State accounts) and reliant entirely on the health of future tax revenues. If these fail to grow strongly, the State will struggle to meet pension commitments to its own employees and to the wider public who are covered by the contributory and non-contributory old-age pension schemes.

Paul Moran: Labour still between rock and a hard place

Our latest opinion poll, conducted earlier this month, shows little change in terms of party support, with most of them tipping along at more or less the same position as last month. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have slipped back (an insignificant) one point, with Sinn Fein the apparent beneficiary. It is as you were for both Labour and the independents. There has been some stabilisation of the Labour vote over the past couple of months, stalling the steady decline that we witnessed earlier in the year.

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