South West Regional Authority

The National Spatial Strategy (NSS) Click here to download the National Spatial Strategy in PDF format (420kb) (Summary Guide of the NSS ) is a coherent national planning framework for Ireland for the next 10 years.

The NSS aims to achieve a better balance of social, economic and physical development across Ireland, supported by more effective planning.

In order to drive development in the regions, the NSS proposes that areas of sufficient scale and critical mass will be built up through a network of gateways and hubs. It's about people, places and potential.

It is about making the most of our cities, towns and rural places to bring a better spread of opportunities, better quality of life and better places to live in.

The City of Cork is identified as a gateway in the South West Region. Mallow and Tralee/Killarney are identified as hubs.

The role of the gateways acting at the national level, together with the hubs acting at the regional and county levels, needs to be partnered by the county towns and other larger towns as a focus for business, residential, service and amenity functions.

Substantial progress has been made at national level in implementing the Strategy, which is having an increasing influence on policies and programmes across a number of Government Departments and agencies.