Speaker says larger population will impact on services

MANY towns and villages are becoming over-populated and congested, just like Dublin, a rural dwellers’ conference heard yesterday.

At the same time, people being refused planning permission for houses in the countryside are being told to urbanise — or do without, according to Irish Rural Dwellers’ Association (IRDA) acting secretary Jim Connolly.

“If Ireland was hugely over-populated and short of land, there might be some element of logic to what is taking place, but exactly the opposite is the case,’ he said.