For some time now, I’ve been reflecting on what kind of growth we want for Lucan and South Dublin generally. Like many people, I recognise that Ireland has a housing crisis and that we urgently need more homes. The cost of renting and purchasing has to come down in price too, relative to people’s earnings. More social & affordable housing needs to be built at speed. However, I’ve never believed that the answer is simply to keep rezoning more land, without looking at the bigger picture.
Recently, I came across a post from UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency for sustainable urban development. One sentence in particular really resonated with me:
“The most successful housing strategies don’t focus on building homes alone. They look at the entire ecosystem and create the right conditions for housing to be delivered at scale.”
That is exactly the approach I believe we should be taking here in South Dublin so that our residents benefit from infrastructure-led development that is affordable and resourced properly.
Housing doesn’t exist in isolation. Every new neighbourhood needs roads and infrastructure that can cope with the traffic volumes, reliable and suitable routes of public transport, schools with places available and school buses in place to reduce transport congestion, GP and healthcare capacity, good parks and recreational facilities (not just private), water and wastewater infrastructure, biodiversity protection, heritage protection, promotion and investment and thriving local communities that integrate with existing communities for the enhancement of quality of life for all.
[Image: UN-Habitat 2026]
Simply drawing more land inside a residential zoning line does not, on its own, deliver any of those things.
My opinion and development is that it should:
- Build homes alongside the infrastructure people need to have a good Quality of Life.
- Ensure roads, junctions, bridges and interconnectors are designed to cope with increased traffic, not just on the existing traffic volumes.
- Deliver highly reliable, frequent public transport before large-scale housing is occupied and be responsive for a need for agile changes in response to usage patterns.
- Make sure schools have enough places for students, are built in the right place, resourced well and with school bus services to reduce traffic congestion.
- Expand GP, primary care and healthcare services in line with population growth with an emphasis on community care and interdisciplinary clinic access for the public.
- Provide high-quality public parks, playgrounds, cultural, artistic and recreational facilities that everyone can enjoy.
- Invest in water and wastewater infrastructure before development takes place.
- Protect and enhance biodiversity, green spaces and wildlife habitats; do not destroy them to build (hedgerows & mature trees, for example) but rather integrate them into new builds where possible.
- Protect, promote and invest in our local heritage so growth strengthens, rather than erodes, the character of our communities. This also develops a stronger sense of belonging with residents.
- Design new developments (or resource them) to integrate with existing communities, supporting local businesses, community facilities and social connections.
- Plan neighbourhoods that improve quality of life for everyone, not just increase housing numbers.
Throughout the recent rezoning discussions, my position has never been that Lucan shouldn’t play its part in addressing Ireland’s housing needs. Rather, it has been that growth must be planned responsibly, with infrastructure and community capacity keeping pace with development—not struggling to catch up years afterwards – as it is at the moment!
Looking ahead, I want to continue promoting an infrastructure-led planning approach within South Dublin County Council.
That means encouraging planning decisions that ask not just “How many houses can we build here?” but also:
🏡 Can people actually afford to live here?
🚌 Will public transport be in place when they move in?
🏫 Are there enough school places?
🏥 Can local healthcare services cope?
🌳 Are we protecting the green spaces, biodiversity and full heritage, that make our communities healthy and attractive?
🚶 Will people be able to walk and cycle safely with facilities where the public want and will use them?
- Most importantly, are we creating complete and connected communities; not just housing estates?
I will continue supporting well-planned housing where it is sustainable, properly serviced and integrated into existing communities. I will also continue challenging proposals where critical infrastructure, transport or community facilities are not yet in place, or where important amenity and environmental assets are placed at unnecessary risk. At the present moment, we need to push “pause” on continued development in Lucan until some changes are made by TII / NTA to our existing infrastructure, plus provision of some traffic routes, plus provision of phasing requirements, a traffic survey that includes projected volumes based on existing rezonings (completion of Adamstown & Clonburris) and now, following June 2026’s largescale rezonings in Tubber Lane, Adamstown plus Foxhunter, projected traffic models that include these figures too.
Good planning isn’t about saying “yes” to everything or “no” to everything; for example, I did not oppose residential rezoning at Liffey Valley (good location) or Stonewall (retention of existing housing for refugees).
Good planning is about asking the right questions, making evidence-based decisions and ensuring that today’s planning choices leave future generations with places where people genuinely want to live, rather than with the same old problems of the past with insufficient community resources, poor public transport, ribbon-development rather than a city-focused development, and disconnection between areas.
That’s the approach I’ll continue to bring to every planning and rezoning decision on behalf of the people of Lucan.
Cllr Helen Farrell 