![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0023e18e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMinister for Housing James Browne will bring proposals to Cabinet this morning (file photo)<\/p>\n
New draft planning guidelines for rural and Gaeltacht housing will be published later today.<\/p>\n
Minister for Housing James Browne and Minister of State John Cummins will bring proposals to Cabinet this morning which will ease some planning restrictions.<\/p>\n
The aim of this draft National Planning Statement is to provide more consistency around rural housing.<\/p>\n
It is seeking to allow new rural homes to be built, along with preventing urban sprawl, as well as regenerating rural towns and villages.<\/p>\n
Those wishing to build a home will be able to demonstrate local need.<\/p>\n
Generally, people must have lived in a rural area for up to seven years of their life and their site must be close to that locality, typically somewhere between 3km and 10km.<\/p>\n
In Gaeltacht areas, as things stand, the applicant must live within 3km of the site, although there might be some flexibility on this, and they must have lived there for 10 years.<\/p>\n
However, this requirement will be just five years for people who speak Irish.<\/p>\n
\nMinister for Housing James Browne will bring proposals to Cabinet this morning (file photo)<\/p>\n
Planning will also become less onerous for people whose job depends on living in a rural area, but this does not include remote working.<\/p>\n
It will cover sectors such farming, equine, forestry, and teachers in local schools.<\/p>\n
Planning will be granted on condition that the house is used as a permanent main home for at least ten years and it cannot be used for short-term rentals during that time.<\/p>\n
Minister of State for Planning John Cummins said the Government recognises that one-off homes are an important part of rural life and it is making it easier for people to live close to their families and remain in their communities.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in’s Housing Spokesperson Eoin \u00d3 Broin said the policy must be subject to Oireachtas scrutiny and public consultation and Government must be open to amendments where necessary.<\/p>\n
Mr Browne will ask Government to note the protocol to allow survivors of domestic, sexual or gender-based violence to transfer time on the social housing waiting list between different local authorities.<\/p>\n
This has been done to ensure that there is no barrier to a household fleeing domestic violence to receiving services and to prevent families becoming homeless.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach to give progress report of child poverty office<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin will update Government on the progress report of the child poverty and well-being office.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin will tell colleagues that reducing child poverty and pressure on families is an ongoing priority and the effort is led by a unit within his department,<\/p>\n
The report show that between September 2024 and December 2025, there was a 0.7% reduction in child poverty.<\/p>\n
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee will update Cabinet on the commencement of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.<\/p>\n
The minister will highlight the policy objectives Ireland will pursue during the six-month presidency, including strengthening European competitiveness, advancing economic security, supporting Ukraine and driving progress on EU enlargement.<\/p>\n
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke will brief colleagues on the preparations for the International AI Summit, which will be a flagship event of Ireland’s presidency.<\/p>\n
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers will outline to Cabinet a new Benefits Realisation Framework which all public sector bodies must comply with.<\/p>\n
Better explaining to communities the benefits of projects like new water treatment plants and energy sub stations is now considered essential to reducing objections and judicial reviews.<\/p>\n
The Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce identified judicial reviews as a key barrier to infrastructure delivery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New draft planning guidelines for rural and Gaeltacht housing will be published later today. Minister for Housing James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-525348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}