'Balance lost' between councillors and local authorities on housing policy, James Browne says 

The housing minister said that executives of local authorities had become unaccountable to councillors and that the upcoming local democracy taskforce would address this.

"I think in part with our local authorities what has happened is the balance has been lost between the councillors and the executive. File picture: Sam Boal/Collins

Powers around housing policy should be returned to councillors rather than staff in local authorities, the housing minister has said.

James Browne said that the "balance had been lost" between powers being put in the hands of elected representatives rather than council chiefs, and that this had led to inconsistencies in planning approaches from county to county. 

Mr Browne said that these inconsistencies are part of the reason that he and junior housing minister John Cummins on Tuesday launched new rules around both rural and Gaeltacht one-off housing.

Speaking at the launch of the Sustainable Rural and Gaeltacht Housing National Planning Statement, Mr Browne said that executives of local authorities had become unaccountable to councillors and that the upcoming local democracy taskforce would address this.

"If you look at the current situation under the guidelines, which are 21 years old now, each local authority has developed their own rules, often arbitrary, often ad hoc. 

"This is also adding cost to people trying to figure out — often having to hire very expensive professionals — whether or not they can build a home in their own rural community beside the family. This includes farmers and people living and working in rural Ireland. That's the kind of level of certainty we're bringing to the system now.

"I think in part with our local authorities what has happened is the balance has been lost between the councillors and the executive.

I think there's not enough accountability there by local councillors of the executive. 

"That's why myself and Minister Cummins have put a lot of work in the last year on the local democracy task force to strengthen that accountability for local government, given powers back to their councillors, reconnecting councillors with the people on the ground as well, so people have more of a say in what's happening in their local community."

Mr Cummins said that the new rules would be about "fairness, not frustration" and would end inconsistent development in rural areas.

'Local need'

The draft statement explains how someone can show they have a “local need” to build a house in certain rural areas. Under the strategy, local needs criteria do not apply within rural settlements but do apply in rural areas under urban influence and the Gaeltacht.

Under the social need rules, an applicant must have lived in the rural area for a period, usually seven years. The site for the new house should also be in or near that area—generally up 10km from where they currently live or originally come from.

There is, however, flexibility in how “local social need” rules can be applied within a permitted range in different rural areas, depending on how much pressure they are under from development. Stricter social need criteria will apply in areas under the most development pressure from nearby cities to stop rural areas turning into commuter suburbs. In certain high-amenity areas, a person must have lived within 5km of the site for up to 10 years to prevent too many holiday homes being built.

In Gaeltacht areas, the applicant must live within 3km of the site and must have lived there for 10 years in their life. However, this can be relaxed to five years for people who speak Irish and can show a local need.

Economic need will apply to people whose main job depends on living in a rural area but does not include remote working and is aimed at jobs like farming, equine, forestry, working in essential services such as teachers in local schools, or people starting or running a rural business.

• Paul Hosford is Deputy Political Editor.