Garden rooms to be exempt

That may have been thrown out in order to gauge public reaction, but changes like this don't happen overnight. A quick search doesn't show any active debate on the planning acts, and the last update took almost a year from the formal initiation of debate to enactment.
 
It takes a while to turn a thought bubble into developed policy, and another while to turn developed policy into functional legislation. And this is probably a good thing; I mean, what could possibly go wrong in a rushed job?
 

Should garden cabins and attic conversions need planning permission? The government wants your views

It is expected that the new regulations will be in place by the end of the year.
www.thejournal.ie

Seems to be moving along reasonably quickly. And, despite what the moaners and whiners will inevitably say, anything that speeds up the delivery of any form of housing is excellent news. Only an idiot believes that nothing is a better alternative than anything which falls short of perfection.

I won't be dropping a modular home in my back garden in the foreseeable future but good luck to anyone who builds one, whether it's for rental or a family member.
 
Good to see that the size is 45sqm. This would allow for a decent 2 Bedroom + living space option.

I would like to see a "license" system where they are registered with the local authority who would approve the design and the location within the garden. Then have the standard of build signed off on before it can be used as a livable space. A fee of €500 for this would be fair.

Surprised that they are staying at the 25sqm available open space to remain. If its an independent living space a further 25sqm open space should be added.
 
peemac said:
Surprised that they are staying at the 25sqm available open space to remain. If its an independent living space a further 25sqm open space should be added.
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Perhaps requiring 50+sqm open space might just rule out the vast majority of urban and most sub-urban gardens. Dublin City requirements for gardens have been 60-70sqm for some time now.
 
BIG-notorious said:
That's basically planning permission by another name.
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nope - just a simple system to ensure proper placement on the site and to ensure its built to standards and also to ensure it adheres to the conditions that will be set out.

I've seen some "structures" in my locality in rural Kildare and it's ridiculous what some people think is "suitable". One has a 2nd hand mobile home to the front of their house and think because there's a hedge there, its OK.
 

Absolutely necessary - every experience with "self regulation" has been absolutely appalling
 
peemac said:
nope - just a simple system to ensure proper placement on the site and to ensure its built to standards and also to ensure it adheres to the conditions that will be set out.
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How are these not planning issues?

If you wanted to apply conditions of this kind, you'd do it by making them a condition of the exemption — the planning regs would say that a garden room, not exceeding x sq m in area, placed in a location approved by the planning authority, etc, etc, is an exempt development.

You can reinvent the wheel by developing a parallel licensing system, with associated legislation and regulations and An Bord Ceadúnúcháin to which appeals may be brought, for things that don't require planning permission. But what is the advantage of doing that? Reinvented wheels are rarely an improvement on the original.
 
same thing really.

Call it a condition of exemption or have it that a license is required as part of the exemption.

But you need some form of regulatory control both to ensure councils don't make their own conditions but also that people don't think its ok to put a 2nd hand caravan or mobile home onto the space and say "it conforms"

Whilst most people would wants something that suits the location and would be mindful of others, there are plenty that would take shortcuts and abuse it.

So call it conditions of exemption, or call it regulations, the end result needs to be similar
 
peemac said:
But you need some form of regulatory control both to ensure councils don't make their own conditions but also that people don't think its ok to put a 2nd hand caravan or mobile home onto the space and say "it conforms"
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You're aware that building regulations apply to new construction for domestic use independently of the requirement for planning permission? So the regulatory control you're talking about has existed for decades.

I totally agree enforcement is non-existent, but there's zero appetite for resourcing local authorities to the huge extent necessary to actually inspect and enforce it. Also there's nowhere near enough people in the industry to build the homes needed (I'm assuming a large proportion of garden homes will be flat-pack imports partly because of this) so there's also anyway precisely nil chance of the resources being available to give to the local authorities regardless of what appetite there may be for it.

Making it a condition of exemption from planning permission that a development receive prior permission from the planning authority for the development which didn't require planning permission would just be kafkaesque level bureacratic stupidity.
 
BIG-notorious said:
I totally agree enforcement is non-existent, but there's zero appetite for resourcing local authorities to the huge extent necessary to actually inspect and enforce it
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This was a recent experience with self regulation:

https://www.thejournal.ie/fire-defective-apartments-dublin-6246181-Dec2023/
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Interim support scheme for owners of apartments with fire safety defects opens today​

Only defects that have been attributed to defective design, defective or faulty workmanship, or defective materials that were in contravention of the parts of the building regulations in place at the time of construction will be eligible for the statutory scheme.

The full statutory scheme could have a potential cost of between €1.5 billion and €2.5 billion.
 
planck said:
This was a recent experience with self regulation:
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Yup. And unless someone can magic up an extra ten or twenty thousand fully qualified architects, engineers, etc into the Irish construction industry in the next few weeks it'll be something else next time. Maybe pyrite or mica again, or some other mineral.

Self regulation is dumb no matter the industry. But local authorities inspecting garden rooms or anything else for compliance with building regulations is a total fantasy for the next decade or two because there's not even nearly enough construction professionals or trades being trained to build what we need, never mind to staff the local authorities to do a whole set of independent inspections during the construction process of every project.

Double the number of college places and apprentices in training and come back in 10-15 years and the Local Authorities could maybe then start doing checks on maybe 5% of new construction annually. Maybe .
 
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