Building a house in County Meath: rural housing policy, rural nodes and the council charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Meath County Council decides applications in the county, and you can search and track them on ePlanning. The rural housing rules are in Chapter 9 of the Meath County Development Plan 2021-2027, which took effect in November 2021. Councils can vary a plan, so check the council’s current text before you buy a site.

Read how a one-off house application works first. Ask for a pre-planning meeting before you pay for drawings.

The three rural area types

Area 1, strong urban influence. This is the commuter belt and peri-urban part of the county, close to Dublin, with rapid population growth and the most pressure for one-off houses. Policy RD POL 1 says individual rural houses must meet the housing needs of people who are an intrinsic part of the rural community where they are proposed. In these areas the onus is on you to show clearly that you meet the section 9.4 criteria.

Area 2, strong rural areas. This is a spine of rural land from the north of the county, east of Kells, to Oldcastle, plus the environs of Athboy and Slane. Pressure is more moderate. The council aims to keep the rural population stable and to direct urban-generated housing to zoned land in towns and villages (RD POL 4 and RD POL 5).

Area 3, low development pressure areas. This covers much of the north-west, west and south-west of the county, where the aim is to arrest population and economic decline. Policy RD POL 6 accommodates demand for permanent homes as it arises, subject to design, location and protection of important landscapes and sensitive habitats.

Who counts as an intrinsic part of the rural community

Section 9.4 gives the main list:

• Farmers and people taking over family farms, including sons and daughters of farmers. You must show that the land area or intensity of use is enough to support full-time or significant part-time work, and if part-time, farming must be your predominant occupation.
• People whose significant job is in the bloodstock and equine industry, forestry, agri-tourism or horticulture, and who need to live close to their employment, with the same kind of supporting documents.
• Locals who have spent more than five years living in a rural area as members of the established rural community and who have no dwelling now or in the past, or who own one they do not live in.
• People originally from rural areas in substandard or unacceptable housing who have close family ties, such as a parent who has lived rurally for at least ten years.
• Returning emigrants who lived for a substantial part of their lives in a rural area and now want to live near family, work locally, care for older relatives or retire.
• People with rurally based jobs, such as teachers in rural primary schools, farm hands and tradespeople whose work takes place in the area.

The plan also allows exceptional health cases, backed by a registered medical practitioner and a supporting disability organisation. It will consider on their merits someone whose original home was sold due to unavoidable financial circumstances, and someone who has lived for over ten consecutive years in a dwelling attached to a business, such as a farm, that is being sold.

The council also weighs other things in all areas. It looks at whether the surrounding area is trending towards overdevelopment, and how much has already been built on the original landholding. The plan says that where a landholding has a history of individual houses built after speculative sales of sites, permission may be refused. See building on family land if that applies to you, and rural housing and local need for general advice on evidence.

Rural nodes

Meath names a network of small rural nodes, clusters of houses in mostly unserviced areas, for people who are part of the rural community but not in agriculture or horticulture. Policy RD POL 8 reserves housing in all nodes for people who can certify at least five years as a rural resident, with the node within 12 kilometres of where they live now. The council wants a completed Local Housing Needs Assessment Form, details of all your addresses over the previous five years, and proof such as an electoral register entry, a school attendance letter, membership of local groups, a letter from a financial institution and utility bills. Where a node uses an individual wastewater treatment plant, each house needs a minimum site of 0.2 hectares (half an acre).

Occupancy, ribbon development and design

Policy RD POL 7 says the council will attach an occupancy condition to all individual one-off rural houses, including those in nodes, restricting use to the applicant as a place of permanent residence. The period is seven years from first occupation. No such condition is imposed in the low development pressure area type.

The plan treats ribbon development as five or more houses on one side of a 250 metre length of road frontage, and weighs whether a proposal would extend or join up existing ribbon development. Under RD POL 9 every rural house application must comply with the Meath Rural House Design Guide. The plan says the test is not whether the house is invisible, but whether it blends in unobtrusively once the site works are counted.

The development charge

The Meath County Council Development Contribution Scheme 2024-2029 took effect on 1 January 2024. For new houses it charges a fixed sum by floor-area band:

Floor area	New house
Under 100 square metres	€6,000
100 to 140 square metres	€6,500
141 to 200 square metres	€7,500
201 to 300 square metres	€9,000
Over 300 square metres	€11,000

A 10% reduction applies if you pay in full within 28 days of the invoice. If you replace a house, the share of the new floor area matching the old house is exempt. Rural derelict sites or sites in need of regeneration can get a 25% reduction at the council’s discretion, and sites with derelict site notices served get 50%.

The national waiver covered only homes started on site between 25 April 2023 and 31 December 2024. A house starting now cannot qualify. See the waiver guide.

Wastewater and site suitability

The plan lists suitability of the site for access, wastewater disposal and house location among the things it weighs for every rural house. Read site suitability assessments and wastewater treatment systems before you pay for the test.