Development in areas of the country vulnerable to flooding will no longer be permitted by local authorities, under draft guidelines published today.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley set out guidelines which he said would ensure a “more consistent, rigorous and systematic approach” to assessing flood risk and managing it within the planning system.
Development will not be allowed in areas at risk of flooding unless there are “wider sustainability grounds” that justify appropriate development and where the flood risk can be reduced or “managed to an acceptable level” without increasing risks elsewhere.
Mr Gormley said the guidelines also take account of environmental considerations including the need to manage the “inevitable impacts of climate change and biodiversity”. EU directives on flooding and the Water Framework Directive are also incorporated.
“The effects of climate change, such as more severe rainfall events and rising sea levels, will increase these risks and may put other areas at risk that may not have flooded in the past,” the Minister said.
“Adapting to the reality of climate change therefore requires us to be even more vigilant in ensuring that risks of flooding into the future are fully integrated into the planning process.
“We are now ensuring through these guidelines that development vulnerable to flooding will no longer be permitted by planning authorities in areas at high or even moderate risk of flooding, except in exceptional circumstances where it is demonstrated to be necessary on grounds of wider sustainability and only then where it meets the criteria of the stringent justification test.”
Mr Gormley said zoning and rezoning decisions must pass this test, and that undeveloped zoned land which new information indicates may be at risk of flooding will have to be assessed in line with the guidelines.
The draft rules also note the “increasingly frequent trend” for paving over entire residential garden areas for parking purposes.
They recommend that planning authorities should attach conditions to planning permissions in order to limit the extent of such hard-surfacing or require the use of permeable paving or surfaces such as gravel or slate chippings.
Minister of State Martin Mansergh, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works and its flood-relief schemes, said the guidelines would have a positive effect in managing flood risk, in particular for new homeowners and for future generations.
The guidelines were prepared in response to the recommendations of the National Flood Policy Review Group. Their publication follows criticism of local and national authorities in recent months after severe flooding after unprecedented rainfall devastated towns such as Newcastlewest in Limerick and Carlow town.
Members of the public may make submissions on the draft guidelines until November 14th. When finalised, they will have statutory force.
The Labour Party's environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy welcomed the guidelines but claimed they didn't go far enough. "There is a need for new legislation in addition to these guidelines that would allow the Minister to designate certain lands as being protected from inappropriate housing development because the risk of flooding is so high and too costly to address," she said.