A draft setting out new standards for apartments has been published by the Housing Minister, while the current guidelines remain under challenge in the High Court.Minister for Housing James Browne said the new national planning statement on apartment design standards aimed to “strike a balance” between ensuring a high quality of apartments and increasing delivery.The statement has been launched for public consultation today alongside an 85-page report assessing the environmental impact of the proposals.The lack of such a report for the Minister’s previous apartment guidelines, released last year, was a key issue raised by four councillors and a journalist in a High Court case.Labour’s Darragh Moriarty, the Green Party’s David Healy and Dan Boyle, Independent councillor Pádraig McEvoy and former Irish Times environment editor Frank McDonald, had their case heard last December, resulting in Judge Richard Humphreys referring legal questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union for consideration. The questions include whether the apartment guidelines come within the scope of the EU’s Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive.The High Court was told last November that the Minister, while standing over his original guidelines, would adopt a “precautionary approach” by carrying out an environmental impact assessment of a new national planning statement that would replace the existing guidelines. On Tuesday Browne said a range of measures, including fiscal incentives, must be used to address viability challenges in delivering homes, particularly for apartments.Minister of State for Planning John Cummins said every effort had to be made to reduce the cost of apartment development. “Crucial to that is ensuring that the State and the market can respond to changing household needs and focus the delivery of apartments where they are needed most,” he said.Like the 2025 guidelines that are currently in force, the new plan proposes no requirements for apartment schemes to comprise a specified mix of unit types, in recognition that “unit mix requirements impact on the delivery cost of apartment” and may not deliver the optimum number of homes. Under previous rules, developments could be up to 50 per cent one-bedroom or studio units, while 15 per cent of the homes had to have three or more bedrooms. Apartment size minimums remain as set out in the current guidelines. The reduction of a studio size from a minimum of 37sq m to 32sq m was a controversial element of the 2025 iteration.Labour housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said the Government had to “go back to the drawing board” and abandon plans to “reduce apartment standards”.“Future generations should not be forced to accept smaller homes and lower-quality living conditions,” he said in a statement.