Tougher planning rules, which will force developers and local authorities to build better-quality homes close to shops and schools, and with plentiful green spaces, have been announced by the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley.
The planning guidelines, published in draft form yesterday, are to be put out for consultation for 12 weeks, although councils are expected to honour them immediately. The Minister is to act to curb councillors' freedom to vote through local area plans that often ignore best planning rules.
The planning mistakes over the last decade or so cannot, and must not be repeated in coming decades, when the country's population is expected to grow sharply, he said. Dublin's population will rise by 12 per cent to 1.5 million, Cork's by a quarter to 150,000 and Galway's by 45 per cent to 105,000.
He said he did not fear legal challenges to the new rules. "I think most people will be very happy with the line that we are taking," he told The Irish Times.
Urban sprawl "is not sustainable" and cannot be allowed to continue, although density rules laid down in 1999 have not been changed under Mr Gormley's plan.
Under the new rules, councils must ensure that homes are built in ways that encourage walking and cycling. "The days of estates being built at the edge of a town without even a footpath are over."
New homes will have to better-built, better-insulated, with play areas that are suitable for children, and that ensure they are not at risk from cars.
Schools should be built within residential neighbourhoods, and located in such a way that they encourage pupils to walk, or cycle, daily.
Every planning application for 200 or more houses should outline future likely school need, while large-scale developments should be phased in line with the construction of new schools.
The Health Service Executive, equally, should be involved from the beginning about a new community's healthcare needs, including the construction of a nursing home for the elderly.
In a bid to cut Ireland's carbon dioxide emissions, houses should be sited to make best use of the sun, and heated by locally-produced wind energy or wood pellets.
Playing pitches should also be developed near houses, rather than requiring parents to drive children to games, while local parks should be no more than 10 minutes walk from every home
Better design should be used to cut down on the risks of flooding, although the guidelines do not propose a formal ban on building on flood plains. However, they do propose that land "in the highest-risk areas" from flooding should be used for amenity and parking, ahead of housing.
Convenience stores should be located centrally, but larger-scale shopping complexes should not be of such a size to endanger existing town centre businesses.
Currently, local authorities must abide by national planning guidelines when drawing up county development plans, although councillors have much greater freedom when they opt, as they increasingly do, to agree local area plans.
However, Mr Gormley said this would change, since he intended to use powers available to him under Section 29 of the Local Government Act to make sure that local plans respected the same rules. Furthermore, he said the current language used in the legislation, which obliges councils "to have regard to" national rules, will be strengthened.
"That has to be replaced with 'must be consistent with'. That is something that I can do, and I intend to do," he declared.
"The rules are changing because good planning is about foresight, it is about understanding the way our country is going to develop."
Smaller towns and villages should not be allowed to explode in size, and developments with up to 40 dwellings per hectare were best at the centre.
Edging away from a town, or village, centre, the number of properties could fall to 25 to 30 per hectare "under controlled circumstances".
Noting that he had been "accused of trying to outlaw one-off housing", he emphasised that the latest changes would have no impact on existing rules governing one-off housing in rural Ireland.
"Bord Pleanála and the local authorities are operating increasingly well with those guidelines, and there is no mention here of one-off housing."
