THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN to allow developers build smaller apartments has suffered a knock following a court challenge brought by a number of local councillors.

At the High Court this morning, the government’s legal representation said it would now carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to see whether the reduced sizes are in line with existing regulations.

The government had previously maintained that environmental assessments weren’t needed to make apartments smaller.

Housing Minister James Browne hopes the smaller sizes will boost construction in the sector by reducing construction costs by €50,000 to €100,000.

Under the plans announced by Browne last July, some of the biggest cost savings for each individual apartment will be found by cutting down on floor space.

Fewer windows and balconies would also be required under the new plans, while a requirement to have indoor communal or cultural facilities has been scrapped.

However, last month, a number of city and county councillors and a former Irish Times journalist brought the legal challenge.

Papers were lodged for the case by Dublin councillors Darragh Moriarty (Labour) and David Healy (Green Party), Cork councillor Dan Boyle (Green Party) and Kildare independent councillor Padraig McEvoy.

Frank McDonald, the former environment editor of The Irish Times, has joined in the judicial review.

They are represented by solicitors FP Logue, a law firm specialising in planning and environmental cases.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys today heard concerns raised by the challengers over “comments made in the Dáil” about the case which seemed to question “the merits or otherwise of the proceedings.”

Last week in the Dáil, Tánaiste Simon Harris appeared to refer to the High Court case when he told Labour housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan to “pick up the phone to his councillor and tell him to stop weaponising the use of the courts to try to delay changes we need to make to apartment standards.”

When told that the applicants were entitled to bring the challenge and asked that the commentary stops, the judge said he was “not sure I want to get involved in policing more granular spats”.

“You don’t need me to communicate with the State,” Mr Justice Humphreys said.

A government source said it remains the view of Government that the July 2025 Planning Design Standards for Apartment Guidelines are operational, lawful and a critical component of improved viability.

A Strategic Environmental Assessment is the process by which environmental considerations are required to be fully integrated into the preparation of plans by the government and other bodies.

In correspondence from the Chief State Solicitor’s office, opened in court today, the minister proposes to adopt the “precautionary approach of carrying out an environmental assessment”.

This will be done in the government’s National Planning Statement, currently under preparation.

These will “replace” the Planning Design Standards for Apartments Guidelines announced in July, with the Government hoping to issue the same guidelines into planning legislation, depending on the outcome of the environmental assessment.

This has been taken amid the State agreeing that the High Court “may consider it necessary” to forward the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg in order to determine the legal issues around making apartments smaller.

The court heard this is being done “strictly without prejudice” to the question of whether such an assessment is required.

The court heard that the State is also mindful that the outcome of the High Court challenge is likely to be the subject of an appeal.

Reacting to today’s court hearing, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin called it a “very dramatic climbdown” by the minister.

“This is a tacit admission that they got this badly wrong, not just in terms of the absence of a Strategic Environmental Assessment but also in terms of the inadequacy of using Section 28 Minister Guidelines as a mechanism for unilaterally altering existing city development plans,” Ó Broin said.

The Dublin Mid-West TD said it was a repeat of similar mistakes made by former housing minister Eoghan Murphy, which he said resulted in a surge in legal challenges of apartment developments by councils and third parties.

In his view, Ó Broin said the fact that the standard of carrying out an SEA being effectively withdrawn in this process, until now, highlights the utter incompetence of the Government’s approach to this issue.

A statement from the Department of Housing said: “In the interests of clarity, the current Apartments Guidelines will continue to have effect under the Act until such time as they are replaced by a National Planning Statement.”

With reporting by Jane Matthews