COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 08, 2025

QUESTION NO. 30

QUESTION: Councillor J. Sinnott

To ask the Chief Executive to advise how South Dublin County Council propose to meet its revised annual new housing growth requirement to 2034 from 1,932 units to 3,270 units as set out by Government in August 2025.

REPLY:

 The Government recently issued revised housing supply targets for local authorities through the ‘National Planning Framework (NPF) Implementation – Housing Growth Requirements’ Guidelines for Planning Authorities (‘the 2025 Guidelines’). For SDCC, the new baseline annual housing growth requirement is 3,217 new dwellings per annum up to 2034 and 2,414 from 2035-2040. These are the cumulative delivery targets across all types of housing for the County.

The current County Development Plan 2022-2028 provides for growth of 15,576 new dwellings (2,613 per annum) to meet the targets at time of adoption. Current delivery is broadly in line with the 2022 targets at c.2,500 per annum, as per SDCC data: Housing Supply Monitor.
A review of the adequacy of existing zoned lands (a ‘Settlement Capacity Audit’) is ongoing to assess current housing land capacity to achieve the revised housing targets. This review must also consider the likelihood of lands identified for residential development coming forward for development based on various factors, such as planning history and availability of services. This will inform the measures needed to achieve the revised housing targets.

On completion of this exercise, the 2025 Guidelines set out that the Chief Executive will prepare a report for the Elected Members (to also be issued to the Minister and Office of Planning Regulator), setting out the development capacity of existing zoned lands, including information on the serviced status and planning status of lands, and demonstrating the means by which it is proposed to secure the objectives of the Guidelines.

It is anticipated that this will potentially lead to a variation of the County Development Plan to zone/re-zone additional lands for residential purposes in order to achieve the baseline increased housing target (c.600 more dwellings annually in SDCC than currently being delivered) and provide for a level of ‘additional provision’ having regard to zoned lands which may not be deliverable within the relevant timeframes.

The Programme for Government 2025 includes the introduction of a new, all of government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by a multi-annual funding commitment for cost rental and affordable purchase homes and local authority social housing build programmes. It is expected that the detail of new national housing plan with our revised targets will be published in the autumn.