Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Treacy. Having listened to the excellent debate this evening and heard the views of people from all parties in my own county, it is clear there is a general welcome for the decision to allow more proper development to occur in rural areas. At present, approximately one third of the population lives in the countryside. People want to continue to live in rural areas. Steps must be taken to support the future development of such communities.

Houses can be built in back gardens on small areas of land throughout Dublin and in urban areas, but families with a substantial acreage have not been allowed to build a home for a son or daughter. That had to be addressed. Only people with roots and links to rural areas will get planning permission in certain regions. This will prevent an influx of people seeking to build holiday homes in more scenic parts of the country, without depriving local people of the opportunity to continue to live in an area. It is each local authority's responsibility to define those who will be entitled to build houses because they are part of the rural community, including farmers, their sons and daughters and persons taking over the ownership and running of farms, as well as people who have lived most of their lives in a particular area. Other people to qualify will include those who work full-time or part-time in rural areas such as teachers, forestry and marine workers and those involved in other rural-based occupations. The case for all people who want to work and live in rural areas must be examined on its merits. Those who receive planning permission to build homes will contribute to the local community and will help to revive rural life. That must be considered as a positive development.

New houses will continue to be designed to integrate well into the physical surroundings and be compatible with the conservation of the sensitive areas such as natural habitats. That is important and has been covered today in the Minister's speech. However, special areas of conservation, SACs, special protected areas, SPAs, and natural heritage areas, NHAs, will not, per se, justify blanket refusals for one-off housing applications. This is welcome. There are parts of the country with substantial areas designated as NHAs, SACs etc. that are merely proposed as being suitable for this purpose, without having been formally approved as such by Brussels. Local authorities have been refusing planning permissions in such areas and this needs to be examined. Even farmers have been unable to build on their own land because of such proposed NHAs or SPAs.

This initiative will help to revive areas and communities that suffer persistent and substantial population decline. In such areas people without roots in the locality will be accommodated in order to provide a social and economic boost and help rebuild the rural community. Everyone is in favour of preserving our ground water, which is the envy of most countries in the world. The new guidelines will help to protect our water and to ensure it is of the highest quality.

Planning authorities now need to examine their development plans to ensure they are in line with the Government's proposals. Some speakers have argued that their county's development plan is in line with them. Nonetheless, in many parts of the country such plans inhibit development in rural areas and the public representatives who introduced them have a responsibility in thisarea.

I support An Taisce in certain ways, but it has shown a blatant disregard for Government policy on rural housing. Public representatives of all political persuasions who have sought planning permission for deserving families have simply been opposed without An Taisce, in many instances, even inspecting the sites. Its representatives even went into the local authorities to see the site maps and house plans and successfully appealed against them to An Bord Pleanála. In my opinion city dwellers in An Taisce should not be able to dictate how rural communities live. Guidelines should be about making the best use of the available natural resources and should guide people in the planning decisions they make, not rule out development and create a rural wilderness. An Bord Pleanála's rejection of 75% of planning applications previously approved by local authorities leaves much to be desired. All public representatives are aware of inspectors going to sites and recommending planning permission; yet for some strange reason An Bord Pleanála refuses them. One wonders why and for what reason, given the expertise involved in such recommendations.

There have been situations where An Bord Pleanála has had to take the decisions it did because the application was for an inappropriate type of house at an inappropriate location. It was probably right in this.

The Government is working to retain as many rural families on the land as is sustainable. The national spatial strategy lists sustaining and renewing established rural communities as one of the four broad objectives of the sustainable rural settlement policy. It also states as a general principle that rural-generated housing needs should be accommodated in the areas where they arise. The national spatial strategy also distinguishes between rural housing needs for rural communities and rural housing sought by urban dwellers and second-home owners. The Minister, Deputy Cullen, has proposed taking into account that the majority of rural dwellers are either farmers or directly dependent on farming. Less than 8% of the population is engaged in farming.