Farmers approve housing move
IFA Environmental Committee chairman Francis Fanning said the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) must now be fully implemented by all local authorities.
For too long, families and rural communities have been at the mercy of planners and lobby groups who clearly oppose the NSS and have been campaigning against the freedom of people choosing where they wish to live, he said.
“The spatial strategy has been an honest attempt to protect the rights of people who choose to make their home in rural Ireland.”
Mr Fanning said there should be no planning policy barriers placed in the way of those who are from, and wish to live in, rural Ireland, irrespective of where they work.
Similarly, those who need to be in the countryside, due to their work, should also be allowed build and live in rural areas.
ICMSA Rural Development Committee chairperson Tommy Cooke said all people should be in a position to get planning permission for houses in their own area.
The Taoiseach’s statement highlighting the lack of justification in preventing people from building a home on their family farm or in their local area was welcome.
Mr Cooke said the ICMSA has sought a meeting with Minister Martin Cullen on the issue.
