Concerns have been raised about the the impact of commuter town expansion on the "viability of small farms" and the need to protect agricultural land from rezoning have been raised by a Kildare North TD.

Fianna Fáil's Naoise Ó Cearúil questioned the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon on what plans are in place in relation to the government's "action plan" on housing and the need to ringfence land for farming.

Minister Heydon acknowledged to Deputy Ó Cearúil that "increased housing will require additional land".

But he believes that this "is unlikely to have a significant effect on the amount of land available for agriculture".

"The government recognises that there must be a balance of economic, environmental and social considerations regarding land use," Minister Heydon added.

Land

The minister also referred Deputy Ó Cearúil to the result of the most recent Farm Structure Survey by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which showed that there were 4.620 million hectares of utilised agricultural area, excluding commonage, in 2023.

"This is actually an increase of over 110,000ha (+2.5%) since 2020 and represents 67% of the total area of the State, with a further 12% in forestry," Minister Heydon said.

He also said that he had listened to the "genuine concerns" from farmers and farm organisations in relation to lands that fall under the scope of Residential Zoned land Tax (RZLT).

"This is provided for landowners and farmers who carry out genuine economic activity on their land if they seek to have their land rezoned," Minister Heydon added.

RZLT

Currently, it is estimated that in the region of 46,300ha of land comprising residential and mixed use including residential zonings are identified on local authority RZLT maps.

According to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, it is estimated that approximately 7,100ha of land that may be considered ‘undeveloped’ is identified on the 2025 final RZLT maps.

He has said that "building 300,000 new homes will require a sufficient pipeline of available land".