COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN MEETING

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

MOTION NO.44

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell, Councillor P. Gogarty, Councillor L. O'Toole

Motion: In the names of Cllrs Paul Gogarty, Guss O'Connell, Liona O'Toole Reference: SD-C195-222 Tallaght Community Council, page 569 Amend H10 Objective 3 to read: To ensure that new housing units, including apartments, provide enough space to allow residents to work from home.

REPORT:

The motion proposes to amend H10 Objective 3 to read: To ensure that new housing units, including apartments, provide enough space to allow residents to work from home.

A previous motion requesting such provisions was put forward at pre-Draft Plan stage under Motion ID: 71419 and it was recommended by the CE that the motion be adopted with amendment to insert a new objective under Policy H10 to read:

To consider the need for housing units to provide enough space to allow for individuals to work from home.

A submission was received to the Draft Plan through the public consultation period under submissions SD-C195-22 and the Chief Executive responded under Chapter 6: Housing – Quality of Residential Development, pg569-570.

Having examined and considered the content of the motion, the view of the CE remains unchanged for the following reasons:

The Draft Plan includes Policy H10 Objective 3 where it is an objective of the plan 

‘To consider the need for housing units to provide enough space to allow for individuals to work from home’.

In addition to the above, the Draft Plan also refers to the Government’s Making Remote Work National Remote Work Strategy under EDE4 Objective 12 as follows:

EDE4 Objective 12:

To support the Government’s Making Remote Work National Remote Work Strategy and the provision of appropriate IT infrastructure and facilities (including hubs at neighbourhood level) that enable a better life-work balance enabling people to live near their place of work.

The Remote Work Strategy is built on three fundamental pillars, bolstered by underpinning conditions. As per the foreword in the Strategy, while some people will work full-time from the office or from home, it is considered that most of us will be blended workers, working sometimes from the office and other times from home, a hub or on the go. 

This is further supported in policies and objectives in the Economic Development and Employment Chapter 9 of the Draft Plan in particular EDE12 Objective 14.

The motions seeks the words ‘To ensure’ instead of the current wording of ‘To consider’.  The Planning Department can encourage and support an increase in the size of units or innovative design to provide for home working. However, government guidelines set out standard room sizes for different unit types. As a result, it would not always be possible to ‘ensure’. Discussion with different developers has indicated that they are responding to market needs in terms of home-working and the design of residential units.

It is considered that the current wording of objective H10 Objective 3 could be amended to replace ‘consider’ with ‘strongly encourage’ and to include the words ‘including apartments’ to reflect the clarity put forward in the motion.

CE Recommendation: It is recommended that this motion is adopted with amendment to read:

‘To strongly encourage the provision of enough space to allow for individuals to work from home in housing units, including apartments.