Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)

The rural housing guidelines are welcome, necessary and timely. In producing these far-reaching guidelines, the Minister has set out in detail how this Government's policies on rural housing will be implemented.

It is important that people who were born and reared in a particular area should be able to continue to live there. People who contribute to the fabric of a community in a village, town or parish, should be entitled to establish a family home there. This is to their benefit and that of the community.

It is also important to facilitate the return of emigrants, not just back to the country, but back to the communities they were forced to leave, often in unfortunate circumstances. Emigrants left due to unemployment and economic stagnation and their leaving was a terrible blow to rural areas, particularly in the west. It is only right, in these times of great economic prosperity, that people in rural areas can welcome their emigrant sons and daughters home.

The guidelines will be implemented by the planning authorities through the drafting and review of agreed local authority development plans. The important aspect is that the planning authorities will have to adopt a more positive and proactive approach to rural development and housing. This will also allow them to work with applicants as facilitators in this process and that is to be welcomed. Planning authorities must play a crucial role in strengthening villages and towns. They must ensure that towns and villages, not just cities, offer attractive and affordable housing to meet the needs of those who wish to live there. To enhance the availability and affordability of sites and housing in rural areas not only helps those people but also benefits the established rural communities.

I want to make specific reference to areas with clustered settlement patterns. Planning authorities should contain areas under strong urban influence, those with traditionally strong agricultural bases and structurally weak areas. Analysts must identify the types and extent of rural areas across the country. The planning authorities must be urged to encourage prospective applicants in rural areas to volunteer additional background information. Such information allows an application to be considered in the context that what is being proposed is rural generated. It is essential that the local circumstances can be appreciated; a national application form is not suitable.

In all areas it is important that information about access, visibility and road safety requirements are provided. We had an excellent debate on road safety in the House last night. Compliance with local authority safety requirements as regards planning is another aspect of this issue. We must ensure all prospective sites are assessed in terms of their waste water treatment facilities, including ground water vulnerability. I welcome guidelines on this element of planning applications. Site location and settings should also be considered when the landscape characteristics are being assessed by the planning authority. This is a commonly voiced fear among rural communities, and by interest groups even more so. I am glad this is being addressed by the Minister's guidelines.

I want to refer to a few basic points as regards the improvement of service to applicants. These initiatives are to be commended. Applicants should have access to a planning clinic, information leaflets and guidelines. Requests for preplanning consultation should be responded to, promptly, as set out in the relevant Act. Applicants should be assisted during the planning process. Site meetings between applicants, officials and agents should be held, as appropriate, to work through contentious points. This makes sense, and is to be welcomed. Furthermore, where an application is refused, advice should be offered, where appropriate, to help with alternative proposals for development. Again, I commend these aspects of the guidelines.

It is important, too, that attention is paid to the applicant's health circumstances. The Minister has commented on that. I welcome the initiative to ensure that where, through health circumstances, a person is required to live in a certain location, this will be recognised by the authorities. Such circumstances should, of course, be confirmed by the relevant medical documentation. Protection of the environment as a location for housing is also important.

I commend the elements in the guidelines to do with the issue of roadside boundaries. I welcome the provision that stipulates existing boundaries should not, as a rule, be removed for a new entrance, subject to traffic safety concerns. Ground water protection schemes should provide policy backgrounds setting out the planning authority's approach to ground water vulnerability and onsite treatment facilities should take account of these circumstances. It is important that the insulation and commissioning of waste water facilities is supervised by competent persons. I am pleased that the guidelines address this issue.

It is reasonable to expect that where applicants are given planning permission for rural housing proposals on the basis of local links, they or their immediate families occupy such dwellings for a specified period. This is subject to reasonable application. The Government wants to facilitate appropriate and reasonable development for rural areas, and this is to be welcomed.

I thank the Minister for allowing the local authorities 12 months in which to make their submissions. Some 105 submissions have been received and considered by the Minister. Local authorities throughout the country have over this period implemented much of what appears in the old draft guidelines in their development policies. That is to be welcomed as are the meetings the Minister will hold with the local authorities and the general public on how the guidelines are to be implemented. I thank the Leader for arranging to have this debate on the Order of Business.