{"id":627418,"date":"2026-09-17T11:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627418\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T11:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:26:10","slug":"rural-ireland-thinks-majority-of-rural-dwellers-welcome-new-rules-on-one-off-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627418\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural Ireland Thinks: Majority of rural dwellers welcome new rules on one-off housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The majority of adults living in rural Ireland welcome the Government\u2019s moves to loosen restrictions on one-off housing<\/a>, with 67% of adults in strong support of the policy.<\/p>\n

The findings in the Irish Examiner\/Ipsos B&A poll Rural Ireland Thinks<\/a> poll represent a rare win for the Department of Housing \u2014 47% of respondents also believe the Government has no handle on the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

The reforms were popular across all age demographics, with a 90% approval rating from those aged 65+ and an 82% approval rating from those aged 16-24.<\/p>\n

The changes could impact the roughly 109,000 people living in rural Ireland who are connected to the farming industry, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is reassuring that we are on the right track,\u201d local government and planning minister John Cummins told the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n

Mr Cummins said the reforms would remove the \u201ceircode lottery\u201d and eradicate the uneven enforcement of planning regulations by different local authorities.<\/p>\n

Current regulations requiring prospective developers of one-off homes to satisfy an economic and social need to build a one-off home are set to be relaxed under the new legislation.<\/p>\n

Mr Cummins said he expected the plans to formally go before cabinet in early 2027, following the completion of a strategic environmental assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone who has grown up in a rural area, has moved away, and wants to come back home and raise their family, support the local schools, support the local GAA club, to live close to their aging parents, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an unreasonable expectation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rule changes will make it easier for that to happen, and that will support rural Ireland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics of rule change<\/p>\n

Others have criticised the rule changes as overtly \u201cpopulist\u201d, citing concerns more rural sprawl would stretch costly infrastructure, like roads, ambulance services and school buses.<\/p>\n

In each case, costs would likely be borne by the general taxpayer as opposed to the individual home builder.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing in the countryside may be more affordable for individual households, but the broader costs of one-off housing are always borne by society,\u201d said Lorcan Sirr, a lecturer in housing policy in TU Dublin.<\/p>\n

Chartered planner and lecturer at UCC Brendan O\u2019Sullivan said the moves could lead to a \u201cbungalow blitz\u201d enveloping rural Ireland. He said the policy was a direct divergence from the department\u2019s purported goals of sustainable development that would prioritise compact, high-density housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to this issue, they have completely abandoned it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan, who worked as a planner for a host of local authorities, questioned whether there was a genuine \u201ceircode lottery\u201d taking place across Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to drill into the data\u2026 my sense is that of all the decisions that are made, around 80%, are permitted. Whereas if you read the press, it sounds like it’s the other way around \u2014 that it’s 80% of refusals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Cummins said there was no need for a \u201cbig review\u201d to confirm such a lottery taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a divergence of approach from local authority to local authority over a considerable period of time\u2026 rural housing guidelines go back 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s been many development plans in all counties over that period of time, and the rules have been applied in different ways by different local authorities, and that’s very clear to see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to research by BCE Consulting Engineers, Cork County Council saw the highest number of successful approvals for one-off housing, with 3,182 developments granted from 2021 to 2025.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan posited increasingly spread-out developments could damage Ireland’s renewable energy aims and scupper plans for onshore wind turbines.<\/p>\n

Current legislation generally requires onshore wind turbines to be built at least 500m away from residential properties.<\/p>\n

The Rural Ireland Thinks Survey was funded by the News Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The majority of adults living in rural Ireland welcome the Government\u2019s moves to loosen restrictions on one-off housing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[265109,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-627418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-rural-ireland-thinks","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627418","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=627418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}