An Independent TD has called on the government to set planning guidelines for people who wish to build homes in rural areas.
At present, the planning guidelines are very restrictive and young people are being denied the opportunity to build a home, according to Galway East TD, Seán Canney.
He said that the existing guidelines are in place since 2005 and have proven to be very restrictive with areas under urban influence being most restricted.
“We need to pay attention to having young families living in rural areas, to help maintain rural communities including rural schools and sporting clubs,” Canney said.
“It is all well and good for so-called experts in planning to be dictating that we should all live in towns and villages, but this is not possible as the wastewater treatment plants are not in place and planning is not obtainable in these centres.
“The economic and social benefits for families of being able to build a home and raise a family close to an aging population in rural areas needs to be also factored into any new guidelines,” the TD added.
He has argued that every citizen should have the right to live where they want, without restrictions and that this should be “enshrined in law”.
“When I questioned the Minister for Housing [Local Government and Heritage] recently, I received cold comfort from his written reply which is full of words but no indication of an intention to make it easier to build in rural Ireland,” Deputy Canney said.
In that parliamentary response, the housing minister, Darragh O’Brien said: “Updated rural housing guidelines are currently being prepared by my department.
“The updated guidelines will expand on the high-level spatial-planning policy of the National Planning Framework (NPF), in particular on National Policy Objective (NPO) 19, which relates to rural housing.
“The draft guidelines are currently subject to legal review and ministerial approval, following which, it is intended that the draft guidelines will be published for a period of public consultation.”
The housing minister explained that the draft guidelines will set out the relevant planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing.
It is expected that the guidelines will continued to allow county development plans to provide for housing in the countryside based on certain considerations.