The Fianna Fáil TD, Sean Doherty, has become the latest high-profile person to have a planning application in Co Roscommon challenged by the Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE).
The group has previously objected to plans by the President, Mrs McAleese, to build a house in a lakeside location in the county.
Mr Doherty told The Irish Times he had not been aware an objection had been lodged to his application to renovate and extend his home in Cootehall. The 1970s bungalow is situated on top of a small hill with views over the Boyle river, a tributary of the Shannon. Responding to a claim in the FIE objection that his existing house is "a notorious eyesore in this relatively unspoiled and protected landscape", the Longford/ Roscommon TD said it was an "outrageous" comment.
Mr Doherty accepted, however, an FIE assertion that the application involved "the virtual reconstruction of the existing house".
He said the plans submitted would change the height and appearance of the bungalow. It would be a storey-and-a-half in height, and stone would also be added to the outside to match two other houses he has built on an adjacent site. The rooms would be extended, but it would remain a four-bedroom house, he said.
He also pointed out that he had been given planning permission for a marina just below his house, but in the two years since this was granted he has not started work on it. Mr Doherty's house was at the centre of much controversy in the 1980s over the construction of a perimeter wall at taxpayers' expense. While it was supposed to have been built for security reasons, it was only about four feet high. At one point, Mr Doherty said the wall was "to keep Seamus Brennan from looking in".
Roscommon County Council requested additional information from Mr Doherty about his house extension in November. He said a council engineer spoke to him and informed him of some "small requirements", and he had subsequently changed his plans to meet these.
It is believed Mr Doherty scaled down the size of a proposed conservatory. The council also drew his attention to a council-commissioned plan for the Lough Key area which limits development and gives guidelines on house design.
Mr Doherty's finished house would be much larger than the average home as it would be above the maximum 210 square metres required to qualify for the Upper Shannon rural renewal tax scheme which owner-occupiers who renovate houses can avail of.
The TD stressed he would not be benefiting from the tax scheme for the renovations to his home. But a development of 13 new houses built by Mr Doherty in Cootehall will qualify for the tax incentive scheme.
He said the traditional style houses had received much praise.
"What I would say is that I have made a bigger contribution to the environment of Cootehall than any of these 'friends'," Mr Doherty said.
He pointed out he had not read the FIE objection and therefore could not comment fully but said he could not understand the reason for it. "Maybe I am a victim of what they consider their duty to object. But I put my own name on the application rather than anybody else's and I think that makes a statement about my openness. And I have gone through all the statutory procedures," Mr Doherty said.
The Friends of the Irish Environment objection states that Mr Doherty's house is in "a prominent site of high visual amenity, particularly with regard to the navigation approach to Cootehall from Lough Eidin where the existing structure to which an addition is proposed is a notorious eyesore in this relatively unspoiled and protected landscape".
It says inadequate information is given in the original plans for a visual impact analysis and says "a fundamental redesign" of the house may be necessary to achieve the requirements of the County Development Plan.
Specification of materials is inadequate, it says, and it is "particularly undesirable that the specifications should refer to an either/or option of double-glazed uPVC or hardwood windows".
FIE says an appraisal of the existing septic tank and percolation area should be carried out to establish if measures are required to accommodate the extension.
Mr Doherty may be facing a long process as a spokesman for the Cork-based FIE said it would consider an appeal to An Bord Pleanála if permission was granted.
Meanwhile, the McAleese family's plans for a house nearby on the shores of Lough Eidin are again with An Bord Pleanála. It upheld an earlier appeal and a revised application, approved by Roscommon County Council, has again been appealed to An Bord Pleanála. An FIE spokesman said they were not targeting high-profile people. "We are targeting outrageous examples, and these don't generally come from poor people," he said.
They were concerned that planning permission was being given in Roscommon in areas where there was inadequate drainage.