February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Environment Minister Dick Roche said he has handed new guidelines to local authorities, reversing a hostile attitude by county planners to so-called “one-off housing” on family land or in rural areas.
The key thrust of the new guidelines is that the planning authorities should respond positively to the housing needs of people who have links with the rural community.
“A principal and crucial part of the guidance is that emigrants who lived in rural areas, moved abroad and now wish to return to live near family members, to work locally or to care for elderly family members or to retire should be accommodated as far as possible by the planning system,” Roche said in an interview with the Irish Echo.
He said the order — which may cause resentment in Ireland from others refused planning permission on the grounds that their proposed houses were detached and not part of a scheme or development — was only fair.
“For many successive generations of people from rural Ireland, emigration was the only option for a job, a future,” Roche said.
“This hemorrhage of the young from rural Ireland not only denuded the countryside of its people, but also put many towns, villages and communities into decline,” he said.
Roche said he wanted directly to encourage emigrants to consider going back to Ireland.
“This is good news for many people who want or need to return home but may have been put off by a planning system which was not seen as responsive to their plans or ambitions,” he said.
“Now could be the time to make those plans,” Roche said.