Urban Renewal and Rural Development

LAs play a key role in climate mitigation and adaptation, as set out in Section 16 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. This requires, inter alia, each local authority to prepare a local authority climate action plan (LA CAP) specifying the mitigation and the adaptation measures to be adopted within their administrative area. The plans will be updated once every five years. Each local authority can deploy a bespoke approach to the style and structure of plans, but all LA CAPs must align with the national Climate Action Plan to ensure the delivery of our climate goals at local and community levels.

signed for a period of six years (2023 – 2029) for the four CAROs to continue their work in supporting local government to coordinate and deliver climate actions, and to assist them in developing and implementing their LA CAPs.

DCEE also funds upskilling and capacity building in climate action in the local government sector, with training developed for local authority staff and elected members, through the ongoing Local Authority Climate Action Training Programme.

In 2021, the European Commission set up the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Its aim is to support 100 cities to become climate neutral by 2030 and to pave the way for all cities in Europe to be climate neutral by 2050. In April 2022, Cork City and Dublin City were selected from over 300 applicants to be part of the initiative. Galway City was selected to be part of the Pilot Cities Programme in March 2023.

The LA CAPs should see each local authority actively translating national climate policy to local circumstances, with the prioritisation and acceleration of evidence-based measures. This will assist in the delivery of climate goals at local and community levels and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in each local authority area.

The cities’ success in the application process is a testament to the cities and demonstrates their determination to take effective climate action at a local level. Demand management measures are likely to play a significant role for these cities in their plans to deliver on this ambition.

To support the development of the LA CAPs, the Department of Transport wrote to all LAs setting out the range of transport related measures to consider as part of their plans and the importance of linking measures to the metrics set out in the transport chapter of CAP 23. The CCAC in its 2023 Annual Review called on LAs to include specific actions and indicators in respect of accessibility, modal shift and active travel in their CAPs.

It is clear that there are various levers and supports available to LAs which can be deployed to deliver demand management measures. The vital role of LAs as implementing authorities is rehearsed across all of the expert subgroup reports that input into this strategy and features in various key recommendations in Chapter 10, notably Recommendations 3 to 9 with a view both to enabling LAs to deliver and also providing guidance and tools to develop appropriate demand management strategies to support the achievement of the obligations placed on them under the Climate Act 2021.

As part of its LA CAPs, each local authority is responsible for establishing Decarbonisation Zones (DZs). These are intended to be the focus for a range of climate mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity measures and will help local authorities to identify projects which will contribute to the delivery of the national climate objective. Aligned to this is the 2025 Programme for Government commitment to work with local authorities and State agencies to develop decarbonised zones in our urban areas, focusing on pedestrianisation, cycling facilities, and use of renewable energy across all transport modes. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (DCEE) authorised funding for the recruitment of specialist staff to form the nucleus of climate action teams.

Urban Renewal and Rural Development

The Town Centre First (TCF) policy, which was published in February 2022, seeks to address the decline in the health of our towns and take measures to regenerate and revitalise them, in line with overarching objectives of the NPF.

Under the policy, local communities are enabled to prepare a TCF Plan for their town. TCF recognises that increasing housing in towns will

In addition, the DCEE funds Climate Action Regional Offices (CAROs). A Service Level Agreement totaling €12 million in funding was

be a critical part of their regeneration - providing homes for people close to local services and amenities and unlocking the potential of vacant and underutilised buildings and sites. Twenty-six TCF Plans have been completed nationally as demonstrators of the TCF approach.

more remote rural areas where population levels may be low or declining, on the other.

The objective is aligned with the established planning approach in Ireland whereby considerations of social or economic need to live in a rural area, may be applied by planning authorities in rural areas that are under urban influence in order to prevent urban-generated sprawl. Social need arises where a person is an intrinsic part of a rural community, while economic need arises where a person works full or parttime in the rural area. In more remote rural areas, NPO19 allows housing to be facilitated subject to normal planning and environmental considerations and having regard to the viability of smaller towns and rural settlements.

Additional plans are being developed for other towns and villages in the future, based on emerging best practice from the pilot phase. To drive the delivery of TCF, several supports have been established including Town Centre First Offices, Town Regeneration Officers (TROs), the alignment of various funding streams related to town regeneration and investment and the jointly funded TCF National Office.

The TCF approach can play a significant role in supporting the objectives of both the RSES and overall National Planning Policy related to sustainable development, compact growth and strategic town and urban regeneration.

Aligned to this are Rural Housing Guidelines, which were last issued in 2005 as Ministerial Guidelines under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. These Guidelines provide that people who are an intrinsic part of the rural community, on the basis of an economic or social need, should be facilitated in all rural areas. In areas under strong urban influence, the policy is to direct urban generated housing into cities, towns and villages. In a rural area suffering persistent and substantial population decline the policy is to accommodate anyone wishing to build a house, subject to normal planning and environmental considerations.

The Strategy can also support the objectives of Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021- 2025. The vision for this policy is a thriving rural Ireland which is integral to national economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing and development. An efficient and accessible transport system can support an Ireland which recognises the centrality of people (rather than cars), the importance of vibrant and lived-in rural places, and the potential to create quality jobs and sustain our shared environment.

The NPF objectives together with the 2005 Guidelines, enable planning authorities to prepare and adopt local development plan policies for one off housing in rural areas.

The NPF also supports the sustainable development of rural areas and recognises the need to ensure that they continue to be viable places in which to live, work and invest. Importantly, it also recognises that there are different types of rural area, noting in particular, that in areas close to cities and large towns, ‘overspill’ development pressure for housing can affect rural character and environmental quality. Equally, in more remote rural areas, the challenges faced by communities when population is aging or in decline are recognised, as is the impact this has on community and social facilities and local infrastructure.

The alignment and mutually reinforcing nature of the objectives of this Strategy and those in the TCF and Rural Development policies is clear. There is also scope for reviewing the potential for greater integration of the structures in place to deliver across all three policy areas to optimise their impact and bring greater efficiencies in terms of the resources allocated towards delivery. A number of the expert sub-groups established to inform this Strategy considered the potential for leveraging these policies to advance demand management objectives (see related sub-group report) and some key recommendations in this regard are set out in Chapter 10.

National Policy Objective (NPO) 19 of the NPF relates specifically to rural housing. This objective aims to ensure that a policy distinction is made between rural areas experiencing development pressure from urban areas, on the one hand, and