Kildare County Council embracing "challenge" to deliver more homes annually 

KILDARE County Council has announced that it is embracing the “challenge” from Government to significantly increase housing delivery nationwide under the National Planning Framework.

Following the publication of the Section 28 Guidelines on National Planning Framework Implementation – Housing Growth Requirements (2025), local authorities are now tasked with planning for the delivery of up to 83,000 new homes annually across Ireland to 2040.

In this way, Kildare County Council has committed itself to update the County Development Plan 2023-2029 to align with the new housing growth requirements.

Kildare County Council’s Planning Department, working in partnership with the Elected Members, are beginning work to translate the new housing growth requirements into the County Development Plan.

This will include an audit of current capacity of existing zoned lands, including the serviceability status and planning status, an updated core strategy to align with new housing growth requirements, the release of zoned and serviced housing lands to unlock additional housing, additional housing allocations to support new Settlement Plans to be published from early 2026, and the identification of long-term strategic development sites to facilitate the ongoing pipeline for future housing and infrastructure delivery for life of the current County Development Plan and beyond This work will be closely followed by a full review of the Kildare County Development Plan, set to begin in August 2026.

The council’s Planning Department will now work to publish a draft variation of the County Development Plan to incorporate the new housing growth requirements. Once published, submissions and observations will be invited during a statutory public consultation period. Details of this will be made available on Kildare County Council’s dedicated consultation portal consult.kildarecoco.ie