Council told to zone extra land for housing targets

The population of Ireland is on track to top six million people by 2040, and Westmeath has been told to dramatically ramp up housebuilding to keep pace, members of the county council learned at their February meeting.

County chief executive, Barry Kehoe, explained that there is sufficient land zoned in Westmeath at present to accommodate 12,149 residential units up to 2034, but the government requires the county to provide enough zoned land for 13,275 units.

A ‘Housing Growth Requirements’ report circulated to members explained that new national guidelines, published last July, translate the National Planning Framework population forecasts into hard housing numbers for every county.

It finds that Ireland needs 50,000 new homes a year till 2040, by when some three million people are expected to be living in the Eastern and Midland Region.

For Westmeath, the bar has now been set at 983 new homes a year up to 2034, dropping to 658 a year to 2040. That 983 figure matches the ambitious housing target already written into the Westmeath County Development Plan 2021–2027, but the guidelines also demand a hefty 50% “headroom” on top of existing supply targets.

In response, Westmeath County Council has reviewed the Core Strategy in its development plan to check whether currently zoned land, and the county’s settlement hierarchy, can deliver the scale of growth now required.

Going through the figures, council official Cathaldus Hartin, told members the council is performing strongly against existing development plan targets: “The current plan set a total housing target of 5,900 homes over six years, and as of the start of January, when you include all the live and appealed applications, nearly 5,700 units have been granted permission. So that’s 96% of the target,” he stated, adding that of those permissions, 48% have been built or construction has started.

There was, however, he explained, a shortfall in the amount of land required to be zoned.

While there are currently approximately 260 hectares of undeveloped residential zoned lands and about 66 hectares of other undeveloped lands that allow a residential component, that had the capacity to accommodate about 12,150 units, leaving a shortfall of 1,126.

Mr Hartin explained that on that basis, it was recommended that the County Development Plan be varied.

“Obviously, the first part of that is go ahead with the Athlone variation and adopt a dedicated settlement plan for Athlone with updated zoning and policy objective reflective of Athlone’s strategic role in the region,” he said.

The second part, he continued, would be to zone additional residential land within Westmeath’s self-sustaining growth towns and villages, which would mean spreading the 35 hectares of proposed residential lands across towns such as Moate, Kinnegad, Kilbeggan, Castlepollard, Rochfortbridge, Killucan, Rathwire and Delvin.

Cllr Johnnie Penrose was concerned at the fact that most of the development would be on lands zoned in the two major towns at the expense of rural areas, a view shared by Cllr Denis Leonard, who said there hasn’t been a private house built in Kinnegad in 20 years, while in the two largest towns, schools were full, doctors oversubscribed and traffic choked.

Similar concerns were voiced by Cllr Tom Farrell, who wanted to see growth in rural areas, but was concerned about the lack of services, and Cllr Niall Gaffney, who felt there should be more land zoned in Delvin and Clonmellon, while Cllr Mick Dollard admitted he worried that some land already zoned residential was, in fact, being hoarded.

Cllr Vinny McCormack wanted to know about timelines, but wondered whether existing lands that have been zoned for some time but not developed are to be reviewed. Cllr David Jones also felt that zoning should be removed from lands that have been a long time zoned but not developed.

Responding, the chief executive said the intention was between now and the end of the year, to look at extra zoning for Athlone, and after that, to look at providing additional zoning in the towns and villages that Mr Hartin had mentioned.

“We’re absolutely conscious of the need for balanced development in the county, and we’d like to see more development in all the towns and villages,” Mr Kehoe said.

He went on to remark that once the land is zoned, applications need to come in from developers and builders. Mullingar and Athlone, in the previous two years, had become “very viable” places to build houses, and in 2025 alone, there were 740 house completions in Westmeath, about 10 per cent more than required based on population.

He added that in the final quarter of 2025, of 206 completions, 50 were single houses, largely in rural parts of the county.

The subject of the Residential Zoned Land Tax was raised by Mr Hartin, who said that at 3%, it was an incentive on landowners to release land for development.