COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 09, 2025

QUESTION NO. 5

QUESTION: Councillor R. Mannion

To ask the Chief Executive to provide an overview of the suitability of infrastructure prior to granting planning for new developments without negatively impacting existing residents. Report to include Water and electrical, schools’ provisions, health facilities, and TFI/NTA to ensure suitable public transport options.

REPLY: 

As part of the process for preparing the adopted County Development Plan, the Council engages with infrastructure providers including Uisce Éireann, Eirgrid, Department of Education, HSE, TII and NTA.  This informs the policy and objectives of the County Development Plan which sets the land use framework for the County.  For instance, the requirement for schools and the reservation of sites was assessed in liaison with the Department of Education. Various infrastructure providers, including TII and NTA, made submissions to the County Development Plan and their recommendations are integrated into the final Plan as adopted.

Following adoption of the Plan, engagement with each of these infrastructure providers has continued. For instance, there are quarterly meetings with the Department of Education who are kept appraised of delivery of housing within the County at a local and neighbourhood level, informing their decision making. Quarterly meetings are also held with Uisce Éireann providing for updates on issues arising and the opportunity to update UÉ of new planning permissions etc. Regular meetings are also held with TII and NTA.

At planning application stage, prescribed bodies are referred planning applications as relevant providing them with an opportunity to feed into the planning assessment. However, it should be noted that the decision on final connection to the water and wastewater infrastructure is one for UÉ at the time a developer makes a connection application.  Similarly, connection to the electricity grid is outside the remit of the planning authority. Notwithstanding, applications for data centres, as large energy users, have to demonstrate that there is sufficient capacity within the relevant water, wastewater and electricity network to accommodate the proposed use (County Development Plan EDE7 Objective 2)

The Council awaits new housing targets from the Minister. Once the target figures are understood in terms of the current capacity of zoned land and the need or otherwise for further zoning, the Planning Department will engage further with infrastructure providers to assess infrastructure availability and the likely deliverability of lands.