Ahern accused of rural pledge U-turn

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was yesterday accused of making a U-turn on a pledge to ease planning restrictions in rural areas.

The Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association (IRDA) yesterday said Mr Ahern had turned his back on promises he made weeks ago.

The Taoiseach said on September 11 he would change planning policy that restricted development in designated zones, in or around towns and villages.

He described the situation whereby young couples can’t get planning to build in the countryside as a huge problem.

The Taoiseach has since said, in a Dáil statement, that Environment Minister Martin Cullen agrees with his view that permission to build in the countryside should be restricted to landowners and their immediate families.

The IRDA said: “We are shocked that, within a fortnight of giving the impression that he favoured relaxation of current regulations governing house building in rural areas, the Taoiseach has fully backed a policy which is even more restrictive than indicated in the National Spatial Strategy.”

More than 200 people, including 100 councillors, heard strong attacks on the Government at an IRDA conference, in Caherciveen, Co Kerry.

The Taoiseach was challenged to spell out Government policy and to state whether he believed that only the families of current landowners had a right to build a house in the countryside.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon Ó Cuiv has already said he is in favour of allowing people who are not farmers to live in rural areas.

IRDA secretary Jim Connolly said the key problem was why planners were refusing to reflect Government thinking on the issue.

“The National Spatial Strategy appears to favour the survival of rural communities, but is open to such wide interpretation by planners that they can interpret it in many different ways,” he said.

“The problem of rural planning is out of control and the people who are suffering are ordinary, tax paying citizens who want to build houses for their families,” said Mr Connolly

Claims of a ban on housing in rural areas were firmly rebutted by Mr Ó Cuiv.

He said that eight out of 10 planning applications for one-off housing were

being granted and there would not be any ban on rural houses.

“Listening to some people, one would get the impression that no one-off houses are being granted,” he told a conference of the Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association.