War of words over the impact of one-off housing escalates

THE Irish Rural Dwellers Association (IRDA) has hit back at claims by a Kerry County Council engineer that one-off houses are destroying parts of the scenic landscape and causing water pollution.

IRDA Kerry branch chairman John Kelly said the council “conveniently” made no reference to millions of gallons of untreated effluent in overcrowded villages in Kerry, where no plans had been made for effluent treatment prior to major developments in recent years.

He also said the council had to close a landfill site, near Killarney, which was only 500 metres from a river, after EU legislation deemed the site unsuitable.

Mr Kelly said the IRDA was conscious of its responsibility in regard to effluent disposal and had engaged expert scientific advisers.

“They (advisers) always held the view that a septic tank, properly constructed and in good working order, is fully adequate to service a one-off house in a rural area,” he stated.

The IRDA was reacting to comments by senior planning engineer with the council, Paul Stack, that inadequately treated effluent from many of the one-off houses in Kerry is causing water pollution and having an adverse effect on drinking water in the county.

Stressing the importance of tourism to Kerry, Mr Stack also said parts of the county had been destroyed by one-off houses.

A “mess” had been created because of a free-for-all during the boom when planning was given for a huge amount of houses in the countryside, Mr Stack maintained.

The 35,000 one-off houses — half of Kerry’s total housing stock — were each day discharging 3.5 million gallons of effluent, a significant amount of which was not being properly treated, he revealed.

As a large number of septic tanks were not working properly, the effluent, it was claimed, was entering ground water and had an impact on the quality of drinking water in schemes around the county.

On Wednesday last, a joint deputation from the IRDA and IFA had a meeting with Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Ciarán Cannon, on rural depopulation and planning.

The meeting agreed that the best way forward was to set up a forum of all rural organisations, whose mission would be to preserve the right of people to live in the countryside.