The Taoiseach has said he strongly supports people who want to build one-off housing on their family farms, saying there was "no justification for" preventing them from doing so.
He said the Government would have to look at the current planning and development legislation, but he was not convinced the situation could be improved through legislative change.
He suggested it was necessary "to persuade people of the case for this. I'm strongly in support of the case."
This was arguably "the biggest issue around Ireland at the moment". It had emerged as a concern in three of the six policy workshops the parliamentary party held on Wednesday.
The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, who has championed this cause against environmental groups and the planning authorities, represented the Fianna Fáil view, the Taoiseach said.
Environmental groups criticise one-off rural housing as "bungalow blitz", which they say spoils the countryside by dotting it with houses.
However, the Taoiseach said it was necessary to persuade people of the merits of the case for allowing such housing for young couples on family farms.
"There is a case for people who have land . . . people in the heart of rural Ireland where their family thankfully don't now have to emigrate, yet, when they marry, they are forced to move into towns and move away from areas because they can't get planning for ordinary houses.
"I can understand all the arguments about aesthetics and about natural beauty and environmental issues," he said.
But when the Government had a strategy of trying to get people to move into the regions and out of cities, the refusal of permission to build houses did not make sense.
Mr Ahern said in his own urban area "they will soon be building in the front gardens as well as the back gardens and the planning authorities allow that. A site where there used to be two houses will now get planning permission for 10 apartments."
He said the Government had a spatial strategy of trying to move people to work and live in the regions and take congestion out of the cities.