The Environment Minister has warned local authorities that the State will only provide services such as waste water treatment plants for rezoned lands if they have been prioritised under the National Spatial Strategy.
Councils who do not follow regional planning guidelines from now on will have to pick up the bill themselves.
The Government's National Spatial Strategy, which was launched four years ago, aims to limit the disastrous expansion of the Greater Dublin Area through planned regional development.
The problem is that some local authorities have rezoned lands even though the rezoning went against this blue print for planning.
Now Environment Minister Dick Roche is linking State spending on sewerage facilities to the strategy with the aim of frustrating maverick land rezoning.
He wants local authorities to be aware that they, rather than the Government, will have to shell out if housing is built in places that were not prioritised by the Spatial Strategy.
