How do I know if land is zoned for housing in Ireland?

Every city and county council in Ireland adopts a development plan (and, for parts of some areas, a more detailed local area plan) that divides the administrative area into zones with specific land-use objectives — such as 'existing residential', 'new residential', 'town centre', 'agricultural' or 'open space'. These zoning maps, along with the written statement explaining what each zoning objective permits, are published on the local authority's website and are usually viewable through an interactive online mapping tool.

To check a specific site, locate it on the interactive zoning map (most councils provide one, often branded as a 'myplan' or GIS viewer) using the address or the folio/eircode, and identify which zoning objective colour or code covers it. Then cross-reference that code against the written statement of the development plan, which lists the uses that are 'permitted in principle', 'open for consideration', or 'not permitted' within that zone.

Zoning being residential does not automatically guarantee planning permission will be granted — density, design, services capacity and other development plan standards still apply — but land that is zoned for agricultural use, open space, or otherwise not zoned for residential development will generally not support a grant of permission for housing, other than in the limited circumstances covered by rural housing policy for one-off houses.