Independent MEP Marian Harkin has welcomed ‘the positive elements’ of the new guidelines for rural housing.
However, the MEP warned that some restrictions would discriminate against people seeking to build on land adjacent to national primary and secondary roads.
Ms Harkin, who is an Executive Committee Member of the Irish Rural Dwellers' Association, said she welcomed the removal of the land sterilisation and occupancy requirements enforced up to now by all planning authorities.
But she criticised the restriction of planning permission to people with a local connection.
She urged that planning authorities interpret this guideline by liberal decisions based on the reference in the guidelines that 'generally' planning permission for one-off houses should only be available to a select few with local connections.
‘Unless the planning authorities are prepared to do this we could have for instance the undesirable outcome that people willing to decentralise under the Government's programme would not qualify to apply for planning permission for a one-off house in any part of Ireland,’ she said.
‘It would also mean that people not connected to a local area but willing to create a new industry in a town or village would not have the right to live in the open countryside and this emphasised the need for a liberal interpretation of the local needs guidelines,’ Ms Harkin added.
