Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a matter for the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and it is under A Programme for a Partnership Government in the section on maintaining sustainable rural communities. In Limerick City and County Council administrative area, since January of this year there have been five one-off rural houses granted planning permission that were subject to third-party appeals to An Bord Pleanála. All five of those have been overturned and refused by An Bord Pleanála, which cited the reason that a genuine and demonstrable economic and social need to live in the area had not been demonstrated or established. When I speak to the planners and professional planning consultants, they tell me it is not in the local planning policy documents, namely, the city and county development plan, and that reason cited for refusing the development by An Bord Pleanála also is not in the sustainable rural house guidelines. It appears An Bord Pleanála, which we all know is independent in its functions, is making decisions to deny people planning permission for one-off rural houses on the basis of a policy that is in gestation within the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government but that is not written into any of the formal policy guidelines. I wanted to bring that to the Minister's attention and ask him for a response.

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