National Planning Framework
National Planning Framework: First Revision
The national planning strategy to 2040, as revised in April 2025: where growth goes, and the national policy objectives regional and local plans must be consistent with.
Government of Ireland · April 2025 · 195 pages
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- Key future planning and development and place-making policy priorities for the Eastern and Midland Region include: Enabling the complementary development of large and county towns in the wider Greater Dublin Area and Midland areas on the key strategic and public transport routes in a regionally co-ordinated manner, with an enhanced emphasis on measures to promote self- sustaining economic and employment based development opportunities to match and catch-up on rapid phases of housing delivery in recent years. More effective strategic planning and coordination of the future development of nationally and regionally strategic locations at points that straddle boundaries between this and neighbouring regions as in the example of Athlone, which is a focal point for an area reaching into much of this and neighbouring regions in economic and employment, transport, education and public service delivery and retailing terms. A focused approach to compact, sequential and sustainable development of the larger urban areas along the Dublin – Belfast economic and transport corridor, along which there are settlements with significant populations such as Dundalk and Drogheda. More emphasis on consolidating the development of places that grew rapidly in the past decade or so with large scale commuter driven housing development with a particular focus on identifying and prioritising infrastructure and local community and amenity facility provision in many of the larger commuter towns through targeted investment under relevant NPF National Strategic Outcomes. Tourism development and promotional branding to ensure that areas such as ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ and ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ are developed and promoted in such a way as to play their full part in tapping the economic potential of regional and rural areas in the region. Developing the potential of the region in renewable energy terms, in accordance with the capacity allocation targets set out in Chapter 9: Climate Transition and Our Environment, across the technological spectrum from wind and solar to biomass and, where applicable, wave energy, focusing in particular on the extensive tracts of publicly owned peat extraction areas in order to support a managed just transition of local economies to greener energy. Building on the progress made in developing an integrated network of greenways, blueways and peatways, that will support the diversification of rural and regional economies and promote more sustainable forms of travel and activity based recreation utilising canal and former rail and other routes. National Planning Framework First Revision | Page 29
- Case Study The ‘Old Rail Trail Greenway’ between Athlone and Mullingar is a 43km long converted stretch of the Midlands Great Western Railway. The route links the River Shannon in Athlone with the Royal Canal in Mullingar, and passes through areas of unique biodiversity and heritage along the way. The Old Rail Trail Greenwayo Building on the progress made in developing an integrated network of greenways, blueways and peatways, that will support the diversification of rural and regional economies and promote more sustainable forms of travel and activity based recreation utilising canal and former rail and other routes. Case Study: The Old Rail Trail Greenway The ‘Old Rail Trail Greenway’ between Athlone and Mullingar is a 43km long converted stretch of the Midlands Great Western Railway. The route links the River Shannon in Athlone with the Royal Canal in Mullingar, and passes through areas of unique biodiversity and heritage along the way. Dublin City and Metropolitan Area Dublin’s functional reach extends beyond the four constituent local authorities and as a capital city competes internationally to attract talent and investment. Page 30 | National Planning Framework First Revision
- Dublin City and Metropolitan Area Dublin’s functional reach extends beyond the four constituent local authorities and as a capital city competes internationally to attract talent and investment. The continued performance of Dublin as a high quality international city of scale is critical to Ireland’s overall competitiveness. While Dublin has generally performed well in recent years, it is experiencing challenges in some key areas including housing delivery and affordability, transport and sustainable mobility, longer term constraints on water services, urban amenities and liveability. In the future, Dublin needs to accommodate a greater proportion of the growth it generates within its metropolitan boundaries, while offering improved housing choice, transport mobility and quality of life. Dublin also needs to become a greener, more environmentally sustainable city in line with international competitors. At a metropolitan scale, this will require continued focus on a number of large regeneration and redevelopment projects within the existing built up footprint, and a more compact urban form, facilitated through well designed higher density development. It will also require significant development, on sites that can be integrated into the existing built-up area of the city and that are serviced by existing or planned high capacity public transport, with a focus on largescale brownfield and greenfield Transport Orientated Development opportunities, particularly along highcapacity rail corridors. There are significant opportunities within the Dublin metropolitan area, and further opportunities can come forward for development in the period to 2040 in conjunction with planned investment in the public transport network. Some areas are already designated as Strategic Development Zones (SDZs) or are identified in the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy and city and county development plans. The future growth of Dublin requires a holistic approach to ensure that residential and employment development is better integrated and served by transport, infrastructure and amenities. It also means ensuring that smaller scale opportunities for infill and brownfield development are supported and incentivised in order to be realised. The delivery of critical strategic infrastructure in areas such as transport, water services management, waste management, education, health and community services is essential to the sustainable growth of Dublin into the future. Key priorities include enhanced airport and port access and capacity; expansion of the public transport network including the delivery of DART+, MetroLink, Luas expansion and BusConnects; and enhanced water and wastewater capacity through projects such as the Greater Dublin Drainage Project and the Water Supply Project, Eastern and Midlands Region. There are several national public service delivery projects, such as the Children’s Hospital, that will also serve the country as a whole. National Planning Framework First Revision | Page 31
- The City Edge Project is a transformative initiative to reimagine the Naas Road, Ballymount and Park West areas of Dublin as a new urban quarter providing up to 40,000 homes and 75,000 jobs (Strategic Framework - Summary Booklet - The City Edge Project). The City Edge lands straddle the Dublin City Council (DCC) and South Dublin County Council (SDCC) areas and the project is a partnership between the two local authorities in a collaborative effort to deliver this large-scale regeneration scheme. At 700 Hectares, the scale of the project makes it unique in Ireland and one of the largest redevelopment opportunities in Europe. The brownfield lands are located at the western edge of Dublin City, within the M50 and only 15 minutes from the City Centre, creating a unique opportunity for sustainable compact growth. The area as now envisaged has the potential to make a significant contribution to the delivery of much needed new homes and jobs, while also generating significant economic, climate and social benefits for the country. The project was awarded URDF (Urban Regeneration and Development Fund) funding for the preparation of a non-statutory Strategic Framework published in August 2022, which sets out a high level vision for the regeneration of the area to 2070. (City-Edge-Strategic-Framework-August- 2022-Final. pdf (cityedge.ie) The City Edge project has a range of ambitious Strategic Objectives with climate resilience at its core including: Compact growth and 15-minute city principles Create a compact urban environment with an active travel focus, that supports the health and wellbeing of residents, through access to opportunities, services, resources, and natural amenities. Blue and green infrastructure Create and enhance multi-functional blue and green infrastructure for placemaking, recreation, biodiversity, sustainable urban drainage and to combat climate change impacts such as flood risk. Active travel and public transport Ensure transport-orientated development by focussing new mixed-use and compact urban development on enhanced active travel and public transport corridors. City Edge is a unique opportunity to achieve Government policies of compact growth and transportorientated development at scale, to reach national climate targets, and to make a significant contribution to resolving the housing crisis, while also generating substantial employment opportunities. City Edge Project, Dublin Case Study Page 32 | National Planning Framework First Revision
- Identifying a number of ambitious large- scale regeneration areas for the provision of new housing and employment throughout the city and metropolitan area and the measures required to facilitate them as integrated, sustainable development projects; Progressing the sustainable development of new brownfield and greenfield areas for housing along existing and planned high capacity public transport corridors focusing on large-scale Transport Orientated Development (TOD) opportunities particularly along high- capacity rail corridors within the metropolitan area; Determining a limited number of accessible locations for significant people-intensive employment to complement the city-centre and docklands areas; Enabling enhanced opportunities for existing communities as development and diversification occurs, particularly through employment, learning and education support; Relocating less intensive uses outside the M50 ring in particular and from the existing built-up area generally; Delivering the key transport projects set out in the Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area including DART+, MetroLink, Luas expansion, BusConnects Dublin and key elements of the metropolitan area cycle network, inclusive of commuter routes and urban greenways; Ensuring that key water supply and waste-water projects needed to support long term growth within the metropolitan area are delivered, including the Greater Dublin Drainage Project and Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project; Public realm and urban amenity projects, focused on streets and public spaces, especially in the area between the canals and where linked to social regeneration projects; Measures to enhance and better link the existing network of green and blue spaces, including the Phoenix Park and other parks, Dublin Bay and the canals, in line with County and City Biodiversity Action Plans, subject to carrying out a routing study and any necessary environmental assessments; Improving access to Dublin Airport, to include improved public transport access, connections from the road network from the west and north and in the longer term, consideration of heavy rail access to facilitate direct services from the national rail network in the context of potential future electrification; Facilitating the growth of Dublin Port through greater efficiency, including improved rail freight transfer options, automation and technology updates, limited expansion into Dublin Harbour and improved road access, particularly to/from the southern port area; Improving sustainability in terms of energy, waste management and resource efficiency and water, to include district heating and water conservation, water reuse and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and the circular economy. Key future growth enablers for Dublin include: National Planning Framework First Revision | Page 33
- 3.3 Northern and Western Region The Northern and Western region justifies a particular focus in this Framework. This is due to a historically lower level of urbanisation compared to other regions, proximity to the border with Northern Ireland and ongoing challenges post-Brexit. The redesignation of the Northern and Western Region from a ‘more developed’ region to a ‘transition’ region by the European Commission for the European Regional Development Fund period 2021 to 2027 highlights the particular challenges faced by this region. While all counties in the region increased in population in the 2016 to 2022 period, the region had the lowest rate of growth of Ireland’s three regions at 6.3% relative to a national average of 8.1%. Within the region, the West (Mayo, Roscommon, Galway and Galway City) grew by 6.7% while the Border Region (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo) had a lower rate of growth at 5.8%. The spatial contrast between the five existing cities in Ireland, all south of a line from Dublin to Galway and cities in Northern Ireland such as Belfast and Derry emphasises this underdevelopment and the strategic imperative of building up the strength of this part of the Country. Such an approach would recognise and build on the facts that the Region contains both the fastest growing city in Ireland over the past 50 years (Galway), as well as places that have far reaching positive effects on their surrounding areas, well beyond what might be suggested by their scale in population terms. Significant towns such as Sligo function in their areas in a similar manner, but at a different scale to the bigger cities and their regions. Letterkenny, with Derry City and Strabane in Northern Ireland also functions as a polycentric cross-border city region. These city and city-region functions will be supported and enhanced over the lifetime of this Framework through relevant policies and investment but with a strong emphasis on securing a compact-growth development approach. Through such policies, by 2040, this will be a region of more than 1 million people, 150,000 more than in 2022, with the biggest challenge it faces being the identification and implementation of actions that will build up its urban structure, diversify and strengthen its rural areas as they transition from the more traditional activities towards a more broadly based mix of economic activities sufficient to underpin long term self-sustaining local communities. This will be complemented by improved accessibility. The Atlantic Technological University, formally established in 2022 as a merger of three existing institutes of technology (ITs) – Galway-Mayo IT, IT Sligo, and Letterkenny IT – into a single university is an example of a collaborative network approach to regional development extending throughout the North-Western Assembly region as a whole. Northern and Western Region The Northern and Western region justifies a particular focus in this Framework. This is due to a historically lower level of urbanisation compared to other regions, proximity to the border with Northern Ireland and ongoing challenges post-Brexit. Page 34 | National Planning Framework First Revision
- Donegal Donegal is spatially unique within the island of Ireland, due to its extensive coastline and proximate relationship to Northern Ireland. Historically, the North Western part of the island has demonstrated significant resilience in competing within its peripheral environment and is characterised by cross border dependencies, between Donegal and Derry/Strabane, related to employment, education, healthcare and retail activity. Enhanced connectivity to centres in Ireland and Northern Ireland is a priority for this regional area, in addition to enabling growth and competitiveness to support the strong links that exist between Letterkenny and Northern Ireland. While a coordinated strategy exists through the collaborative approach of the North-West Strategic Growth Partnership, there is scope to further reflect this approach in a regional and local spatial planning context to ensure that Letterkenny and environs has the capacity to grow sustainably and secure investment in the context of the cross-border North- West Strategic Growth Partnership. North-West As a regional centre, Sligo serves a large hinterland that extends beyond County Sligo into surrounding counties, to include parts of Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo and Roscommon, supported in particular by nearby county towns. Sligo’s significance as a centre of employment and services is much greater than its scale in terms of population. The presence of strong employment sectors such as Pharma and Engineering, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), cultural institutions and health services indicate latent capacity for Sligo to enhance its regional role. This can be achieved through building critical mass of population and further employment, in tandem with enhanced accessibility and quality of life. Given the importance of regional interdependencies, this must be in partnership with other places and institutions. The important regional role of Sligo is recognised in the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Northern and Western Region. It will also be necessary to prepare a co-ordinated strategy for Sligo at settlement level to ensure that the town can grow sustainably and secure investment as a key regional centre AIM Centre, Sligo The AIM Centre (Advance Innovation in Manufacturing) is at the forefront of advancing technology for manufacturing and supply chain; supporting businesses across Ireland on their digitalisation journey, ensuring businesses stay competitive, increase productivity and grow the region’s economic impact. It opened in February, 2024, and represents the repurposing and regeneration of a landmark building in the Centre of Sligo Town (Market Place, Abbeyquarter) through €5.4 million in funding from Enterprise Ireland, through the Border Regional Enterprise Development Fund (BEDF). The AIM Centre is an initiative brought to life through a collaborative partnership between the Atlantic Technological University, Sligo County Council, and Leitrim County Council. Together this trio is called the ‘Sligo Leitrim ITS Regional Development Projects DAC’. The partnership is dedicated to leading funded projects, aimed at the development of the West and North-West Region of Ireland. The Hub will support regional SMEs over three years and be connected to a network of over 200 other EDIHs across the European Union. EDIHs offer a portfolio of free services to help companies become more competitive through the adoption of digital technologies. Businesses that engage these one-stop-shops for firms with digital challenges will be able to gain expertise on research and development in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Blockchain technologies. The Centre facilitates Co-Location spaces in addition to the aforementioned services. Case Study National Planning Framework First Revision | Page 35
- Cavan-Monaghan/North East Within the Northern and Western region, most of County Cavan and County Monaghan have a more easterly focus than elsewhere. They comprise part of a North-Eastern functional area that also includes County Louth in the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly area. The key driver for this regional area is the Dublin-Belfast cross-border network, the influence of which, as well as that of the Dublin Metropolitan area, extends into Cavan and Monaghan. Addressing economic resilience and connectivity will be strategic priorities for this area. The maintenance of seamless cross-border movement for people, goods and services, together with improvements in digital and physical infrastructure will create new opportunities to leverage employment and for sustainable population growth, focused on the county towns. Enhanced connectivity would result in this area being strategically located almost equidistant between the Dublin, Belfast and Derry City regions in terms of time, as well as distance. West Counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon comprise the Western regional area. Galway City exerts a strong influence in much of the southern part of this area. The Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP) prepared as part of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy process for the Galway Metropolitan area sets a strategic framework to guide development in the wider city region. Improved north-south connectivity, focused on a network of regional assets such as Higher Education Institutes, the M17 and Ireland West- Airport Knock and a strengthening of the urban and employment structure of the wider North-Western region, will provide new opportunities, to be complemented by enhanced east-west accessibility. The Atlantic Economic Corridor initiative (see case study) seeks to build on this potential, supported by developments such as the recently established Atlantic Technology University. Ireland West Airport Knock has a significant role in tourism and enterprise development, with potential for further growth taking particular account of its designation as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ). County Mayo functions with a high degree of selfcontainment, focused on several strong centres of employment and services, all of which could accommodate greater population as well as further jobs growth. Much of Roscommon functionally operates as part of the Midland region, focused on Athlone, which is partly located within the County, whereas the northern part of the County is influenced by proximity to Sligo and Leitrim. Given the importance of regional interdependencies, this will require a co-ordinated approach at both regional and county/town level, to ensure that Athlone and its environs can grow sustainably and secure investment as the key regional centre in the Midlands, extending into parts of Galway and Roscommon. More broadly for the West, tailoring policy approaches to capitalise on quality of life and current and emerging sectoral strengths such as agri-food, renewable energy, tourism and the marine, and to incentivise town and village renewal through the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, will also be important. Page 36 | National Planning Framework First Revision
- Key future planning and development and place-making policy priorities for the Northern and Western Region include: Implementing the metropolitan area strategic plan for Galway city, to enable its continued strategic development in a transformational and urban rejuvenation focused manner, with a special focus on capitalising on the potential of underutilised and publicly owned and centrally located sites and activating their potential to boost the population and economic output levels of central areas. Enhancing the city-region like functions performed by Sligo in line with its statutory development plan, activating the potential for further rejuvenation and renewal of its core and further enhancing its connectivity in a national and regional context to ensure wider accessibility of relevant services and amenities. Further implementation of the strategic partnership between the Donegal and Derry local authorities in the context of the further enhancement of the North West City Region area, delivering a wide range of economic, infrastructural, community and public service functions in the wider north- west. More effective strategic planning and coordination of the future development of nationally and regionally strategic places, including points straddling boundaries with neighbouring regions, like Athlone and Letterkenny which are focal points for large geographical areas reaching into much of this and neighbouring regions in economic and employment, transport, education and public service delivery and retailing terms. Supporting the emerging and ongoing development, at both local and community levels, of the network of both urban and rural places working together for regional benefit under the Atlantic Economic Corridor initiative, including university and higher education and research alliances, and improved connectivity. Integrated planning, management and development of the areas traversed by the Wild Atlantic Way to maximise both the quality and integrity of the visitor experience and the added benefit in economic terms, especially for rural and local communities. Supported by the Rural and Urban Regeneration and Development Funds, shaping and informing delivery of city, rural town and village rural rejuvenation priorities, harnessing publicly owned land and other assets that are not being used actively at present, such as former healthcare, military, transport and other complexes and combining the potential of such assets with community and wider private and public sector support and investment, to bring about the transformation of both urban and rural areas in an integrated manner. Harnessing the potential of the region in renewable energy terms in accordance with the capacity allocation targets set out in Chapter 9: Climate Transition and Our Environment, across the technological spectrum from wind and solar, in addition to biomass and wave energy. Building on the progress made in developing an integrated network of greenways, blueways and peatways that will support the diversification of rural and regional economies and promote more sustainable forms of travel and activity based recreation utilising canal and other routes. National Planning Framework First Revision | Page 37
- Atlantic Economic Corridor The Atlantic Economic Corridor (AEC) is the term applied to a linear network along the Western seaboard, stretching from Kerry to Donegal. The overarching objective of the AEC initiative is to maximise assets along the western seaboard in order to attract investment, support job creation and contribute to an improved quality of life for the people who live there. The initiative has the potential to act as a key enabler for the regional growth objectives of the National Planning Framework. The Western Development Commission (WDC) supports the delivery of Government policy towards balanced regional development across a wide variety of sectors, including its work on the AEC initiative. The AEC initiative has to date enabled a number of projects to be developed, notably the AEC Hub Network project, which has since progressed to a national initiative in the form of Connected Hubs. The Connected Hubs Network has enabled the creation of an ecosystem where all remote working hubs can share knowledge, best practice, solve problems and engage their collective voices to benefit each other, the sector and the wider communities they serve (refer to section 5.4). The WDC is currently developing a dedicated strategy document for the AEC initiative. Case Study Page 38 | National Planning Framework First Revision
Source Government of Ireland: National Planning Framework: First Revision (April 2025) · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.