More than 60 council motions allowing one-off housing in scenic areas of Kerry have been passed this year. Carl O'Brien talks to both sides of a heated local election debate.
Mr Willie Murphy lets out a sigh of frustration as he rustles loudly through a bundle of planning applications dating back over the last three years.
"Really and truly I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," the 36-year-old father-of-one says, clutching another rejected piece of paperwork.
"It should be a God-given right to build on your own land. I'm a farmer with a large holding. I grew up here. And here I am living in a fridge of a house with no warm water."
He has applied five times to build a dormer bungalow on a portion of the 240 acres he owns amid the rugged beauty of Glencar, Co Kerry. The applications have in most cases been refused because of the impact on the mountainous landscape. And the full-time farmer is incandescent with rage.
"Are they saying tourists have more right (to a view) than we have to build a home?" he asks, the tone of his voice rising in frustration.
"No one is being allowed to build. The way things are going, they'll wait until everyone is gone, put up two big gates and turn all of this into a national park."
For candidates in the local elections in the Killorglin electoral area, which embraces the 110-mile tourist trail that is the Ring of Kerry, one-off housing in rural areas is emerging as one of the biggest issues on the doorsteps of bungalows dotted around the landscape.
"It's a massive issue here. I'd say it's taking up around 80 per cent of my time," says Mr Michael Cahill, a local Fianna Fáil councillor who keeps a dog-eared ledger in the back seat of his car with details of around 100 families seeking to build houses in the area.
"It is tough to have a couple in tears before you who can't build a house in their own area. They're frustrated, angry and upset. Often they have spent a lot of money preparing an application, or organising builders, but they are repeatedly being refused permission."
While the question of planning for houses in areas of scenic beauty has been bubbling away for some time, it has spilled over into the battleground of the local elections in recent months.
As polling day has approached, some councillors have been rushing to propose section 140 motions, which override the decisions of planning authorities and direct the county manager to grant permission for developments where plans are supported by more than three-quarters of council members.
In most areas around the country there are perhaps one or two such motions passed in the lifetime of a county council. In Kerry this year, some 60 motions have been proposed so far. The vast majority have been passed.
"When you've exhausted all options, that's where they come into play," Cllr Cahill says. "It's not the ideal way to do things. There's a lot of work in it for us as well. We've to write them up, get the votes."
Most councillors in the Killorglin electoral area share his frustration, and are actively supporting a relaxation of laws governing the construction of houses in the area.
"Management in the council have a view that people should all be centralised into towns and villages," says Cllr Michael Healy-Rae (Ind) from Kilgarvan, one of the biggest proponents of section 140s.
"I'm totally opposed to that. I have a different vision of people living in the countryside. They shouldn't have to live under a stone - these people are entitled to live in their own area. I care for the environment as much as anyone, but to do that you have to keep people in it."
Fine Gael councillor Mr PJ Donovan from Kenmare is also critical of many planning decisions, and urges more co-operation.
"A lot of silly things have been turned down," he says. "My main concerns are for the sons and daughters of farmers who want their children to live close to them on the land, and look after them when they are older ... If there is more co-operation, then it shouldn't be a problem. There needs to be more pre-planning and designing of houses which fit into the area."
Some, however, question how big the issue of one-off rural housing really is. They suggest that it is merely a symptom of a fierce political battle in the Killorglin area between the Healy-Raes and Fianna Fáil, with each ratcheting up the rhetoric as election day approaches.
"The problem is being greatly exaggerated," says Mr John Brazil, a Fianna Fáil councillor from the seaside town of Ballyheigue, in the north of the county, who has either abstained from or opposed many section 140s. "To listen to some of the them, you'd think half the community was living in tents with campfires around them."
He says the issue has been brought up on the doors less than a dozen times since he started canvassing for the elections in March. He accepts there is less pressure for housing in the north Kerry area, but not that there is a crisis in the south of the county.
"Section 140s are more about elections than about planning, I've said that before. There is a huge battle between Healy-Rae and Fianna Fáil, while Fine Gael are trying to hold their own. You basically have one candidate trying to outdo the other.
"We must allow planners to do their job. In most cases houses can be integrated into the countryside, using local stone, adequate screening and so on. But you have some people who want to build two-storey houses on the highest point of a landholding. And, when they are refused, some councillors in the south of the county are willing to try and push it through under section 140."
Cllr Michael Gleeson, a national schoolteacher in Killarney and a member of the South Kerry Independent Alliance, says that while he is not opposed to one-off rural housing, he insists it must be appropriate to the environment.
"We need to allow rural communities to prosper. It has been said that you cannot eat beauty, but that beauty has fed tens of thousands of Kerry people down through the generations. That's the obligation that rests on the shoulders of councillors - to protect that."
Mr Willie Murphy, in the meantime, is more optimistic that he will finally get permission for his dormer bungalow after spending in the region of €20,000 on planning applications over the last three years.
The issue came before the council recently, in the form or a section 140 motion, but was adjourned. Having amended the plans, and moved the location of the house, the chances of getting the application through the planning process look better than before.
While he declines to say what way he will vote, he says the issue of one-off houses will play a central role in dictating which box he ticks on the ballot paper come June 11th.
"I'll know in five weeks' time whether the planning has gone through," says the full-time farmer. "This is a 24-hour job. I can never say my work is finished, and I can't afford to live away from there. But I couldn't bear another winter in my house. With planning, I could be in the downstairs of the new house by Christmas. We'll just have to see what happens."