Government to lift ban on single rural houses

THE Government is to scrap tough planning laws banning the building of single houses in rural Ireland in a bid to redress the huge population imbalance.

This major planning U-turn will be one of the main planks of the long-awaited National Spatial Strategy due to be published in October.

It will be launched along with a decentralisation programme that will see thousands of civil service jobs re-located outside Dublin, Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Eamon Ó Cuív has confirmed.