National Planning Framework (Project Ireland 2040)
Core idea
A twenty-year strategy pairing spatial planning with capital investment.
Why it matters
Pursued compact growth and regional balance against Dublin primacy.
Description
Published in 2018, the National Planning Framework is Ireland's twenty-year strategy for spatial and sustainable development to 2040, replacing the earlier National Spatial Strategy. Together with the National Development Plan it forms Project Ireland 2040, linking long-term planning to capital investment. The framework distributes anticipated growth deliberately: about a quarter to Dublin, a quarter to the other cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford combined, and the remainder to regional centres, towns and rural areas, with the four secondary cities targeted to grow substantially. Its central principle is compact growth, directing development to brownfield and infill sites within existing built-up areas to curb sprawl.
Significance
The framework sought to rebalance an Irish settlement pattern long dominated by Dublin, strengthening the other cities as regional counterweights, and embedded compact, transport-oriented growth as national policy. By coupling spatial objectives to a costed investment plan, it aimed to give strategy practical force, and it remains the reference point for Irish regional and local planning.
What shaped it
- The master plan (early 20th c.)
- SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities (2015)
- UN 2030 Agenda & Sustainable Development Goals (2015)
- The compact city (1973-1990s)
Plans it influenced
Sources
- https://www.npf.ie/project-ireland-2040-national-planning-framework/
- https://www.npf.ie/wp-content/uploads/Project-Ireland-2040-NPF.pdf
- https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/governm