Orla Hegarty: Garden cabins, rural sprawl and tiny apartments: housing has become a numbers game

Ireland's National Planning Framework, a 20-year roadmap for growth and sustainability, champions compact settlements, sustainable transport, and a transition to a carbon-neutral society. The framework emphasizes climate and energy goals, with significant efforts focused on upgrading existing housing stock and enforcing stringent new construction standards. This year alone, 73,000 homes are slated for improvement with state grants, and over 200,000 highly energy-efficient homes have been built since 2015, offering long-term benefits of lower energy use, increased comfort, and improved health. However, a recent shift towards deregulation in the housing sector has raised concerns. Successive housing ministers have eased restrictions, particularly for apartments and rural housing, including planning exemptions for garden cabins. This has resulted in an emphasis on increasing housing supply at any cost. Developers can now create an unlimited number of small apartments, some as tiny as 32 square meters, requiring air conditioning and thus increasing energy demand – a factor seemingly overlooked in recent environmental assessments. These smaller units also mean fewer people per building, potentially disrupting national projections for land zoning, infrastructure, and carbon emissions. Furthermore, the focus on one- and two-person rentals in urban areas pushes those seeking space, affordability, and security towards suburban sprawl, necessitating car-dependent commutes. The National Planning Framework explicitly calls for a move away from "business as usual" in rural housing, targeting 40% of new homes within towns and villages. Yet, new guidelines appear to promote a one-size-fits-all approach to rural housing, disregarding the diverse needs, capacities, and environmental pressures of different areas, particularly those near cities versus more remote regions.