Local authorities to be asked to find more land for housing
Local authorities will be asked next week to begin work on finding more land that can be zoned for housing.
Minister for Housing James Browne is to write to councils in the coming days requesting them to quickly identify land suitable for housing.
The Government has set a target of delivering more than 300,000 homes between this year and 2030.
Under the recently passed National Planning Framework, some 50% of developments would be focused on the cities of Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.
The other areas identified include towns and villages across the country.
Next month the Department of Housing will issue formal instructions to local authorities asking them to reopen their development plans and to zone more land for housing.
This order, which is a Section 28 Direction, is currently being drawn up by officials and the housing minister.
However, in an effort to speed up the process the minister will write to councils next week to get the work under way.
There is an ambition in Government that local authorities will zone large amounts of land for housing within 18 weeks of receiving a formal direction to do so.
But the Department of Housing is unable to impose a deadline for this process given the local authorities' independent role in this area.
The Dáil heard this week that there are significant amounts of land in more than ten local authority areas, where potentially thousands of homes could be built.
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