The traditional settlement in Kerry was far from the one-off rural house in the countryside even in the pre-Famine era, according to An Taisce, which says it is "bogged down" by planning matters in its desire to protect the environment.
In a survey of settlement patterns in pre- and post-Famine Kerry in 1841 and 1894, the National Trust for Ireland found that the clustering of houses was the norm. This contrasts dramatically with the "ribbon" development of recent decades, in which the roads radiating from towns around the country have been built up.
Such development has now gone out of control, an Taisce's agm in Killarney heard.
Some 9,100 planning applications were made in the last two years in rural areas, towns and villages, and more than 80 per cent of these were granted. Thousands more residential units have been applied for in major towns.
An Taisce in Kerry, which is at the coalface of the planning controversy in rural Ireland, carried out the survey.
"It became very obvious the traditional settlement pattern was a cluster of houses, of 15-20 houses, and bare countryside all around," honorary planning officer Dr Catherine McMullin said.
A small number of farmhouses at roadsides or set well back into the land were also found. "We found nothing resembling the ribbon development and gross overdevelopment that is going on at the moment," she said.
An Taisce says it found that planning was not the cause of depopulation in certain areas of Kerry. In the Clydagh valley between Killarney and the Cork-Kerry border, for instance - where the population is in decline - there had been only a handful of housing applications.
"Areas where the population is falling are remote areas where there are no applications. Therefore it is not the planning process that is leading to depopulation," Dr McMullin said.
In one of the strongest attacks yet on one-off rural housing in Kerry, Dr McMullin said the new pattern of housing would shortly lead to huge extra public costs for school buses, postal and refuse collections.
"Car dependency will have long-term effects . . . A lot of accidents in Kerry are caused by cars coming out of houses or from side roads in rural areas."