Building a house in County Roscommon: two rural policy zones, the 5-year link test and the €3,600 rural charge

Who decides, and how to apply

Roscommon County Council decides applications for the county. Its planning pages explain how to apply and let you search applications already made, which is a quick way to see how the council has treated sites near yours. The rural housing rules are in chapter 3 of the Roscommon County Development Plan 2022-2028, Volume I, adopted in March 2022 and in effect from 19 April 2022. The council has a review of its plans under way, so check the current text before you buy a site.

Read how a one-off house application works first. Every new rural house must show it follows the principles in the County Roscommon Rural Design Guidelines (objective PPH 3.13).

Two rural policy zones

The plan identifies two rural policy zones, shown on the Commuter Catchment Areas map (Map 3.1):

• Zone A, areas under urban influence. These are the rural areas where 15% or more of an electoral division’s workforce commutes to a key town or larger centre, here Athlone, Ballinasloe, Carrick-on-Shannon, Longford or Roscommon town. The plan’s aim is to provide for the rural community with a genuine local housing requirement and to direct urban generated housing into settlements. You must show a demonstrable economic or social need. The Hodson Bay and Barrymore area is excluded and has its own area plan.
• Zone B, remaining rural areas. These are all other rural areas. The council wants to retain population and support the rural economy, so it facilitates rural housing subject to siting and design criteria. The Lough Key area is excluded and has its own criteria in the area plan in Volume II.

The housing need test in Zone A

Table 3.2 of the plan sets two routes:

• Economic need: you are engaged full-time in a rural-based activity such as agriculture, horticulture, farming, forestry, bloodstock, the peat industry, inland waterway or marine work, with a genuine need to live close to your workplace and over five years in that employment; or your business needs you to live in the rural area and its operations are specific to it, with proof the business is viable. Part-time farming or natural-resource work counts where it is your predominant occupation, with evidence such as a herd number or hours of activity.
• Social need: you were born in the local rural area, or have lived there permanently for a substantial period at any stage before applying, which includes returning emigrants seeking a permanent home in their local rural area; or you have a significant link to the community through five years of living there before you apply or long-established ties with immediate family.

Three further rules matter. A demonstrated need does not normally warrant permission where you have already benefited from a permission for a dwelling on another site or own an existing property in the rural area, unless exceptional circumstances are shown. Successful applicants must enter a Section 47 agreement restricting occupancy to themselves and their immediate family, or others who meet the criteria, for 7 years. And the plan wants at least 20% of new rural housing on brownfield sites (PPH 3.19). See rural housing and local need for how to assemble your evidence.

Siting, clusters and replacement houses

The plan favours clusters of houses where more than one is proposed on a landholding and discourages single houses that cause or worsen ribbon development (PPH 3.15). Houses along designated scenic routes are considered where there is no alternative site, such as elsewhere on family land, and the house settles into the landscape, with a visual impact assessment (PPH 3.16). The demolition of a substandard dwelling and its replacement with one house is allowed subject to site suitability and design (PPH 3.17). A house being replaced must still be clearly recognisable as a dwelling and last used as one.

Urban generated housing in the countryside is directed to the towns and villages (PPH 3.14), and the council promotes serviced sites in villages and in towns under 2,000 people as a platform for self-building (PPH 3.20).

The development charge

Roscommon’s Development Contribution Scheme 2014, as amended on 24 February 2020, charges €3,600 for a rural dwelling and €4,400 for an urban one. Rural means any area without a local area plan or area plan. The scheme adjusts its rates each 1 January using the CSO wholesale price index, so the amount on your permission can be higher than the base rate. It remains in force until the council adopts a replacement.

A replacement house where the original is inhabited, capable of immediate habitation or inhabited in the previous seven years is exempt, and so is a rebuild after fire damage. Retention permissions do not get the exemptions. The national waiver covered only homes started on site between 25 April 2023 and 31 December 2024, so a house starting now cannot qualify. See the waiver guide.

To see how Roscommon’s charge compares, the development contributions table compares the charge for a 200 square metre house across all 31 councils.

Wastewater and site suitability

Almost every rural house treats its own wastewater, and a site that fails the test will fail the application whatever your local need. Read site suitability assessments and wastewater treatment systems before you pay for the test.