The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager, Mr Derek Brady, has taken the unprecedented step of attaching a "health warning" to the county council's draft development plan.
His notice states that the plan "significantly fails to comply with the Planning and Development Act, 2000, in that insufficient land has been proposed for zoning by the elected members for residential use to comply with the draft housing strategy".
The county manager had proposed that a total of 175 hectares (420 acres) of land should be zoned residential so that the county could meet the demand for housing, but the councillors declined to take his advice in every case.
Among the proposed zonings omitted from the draft was Dún Laoghaire Golf Club, which has been in negotiations with the Cosgrave Property Group regarding the possibility of a "land swap" for a site at Ballyman, near Bray.
Mr Eamon Gilmore TD (Labour) said this proposal was very controversial and there was "huge opposition" locally. Despite extensive provision for recreational space, four times as large as the People's Park, it was defeated by 11 votes to 10.
Mr Richard Cremins, senior planner with the council, defended the plan to rezone Dún Laoghaire Golf Club because it was within walking distance of the town centre.
The councillors also rejected a proposal to rezone Stepaside Golf Club for residential development, even though it came with a condition that no houses could be built there until an alternative course was provided in the vicinity.
After the council had reduced the volume of newly-zoned housing land to 100 hectares (240 acres), the county manager sought a direction from the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, on whether he could put the draft on public display.
When he received no direction from the Minister on whether it was in compliance with the 2000 Planning Act, Mr Brady felt he had no alternative but to attach his "health warning" to the draft, which is now on public display until July 1st.
"He had no authority to do that", Mr Gilmore said. "My understanding is that the manager is required to put on public display the draft approved by the members. There is no provision for the manager to write in a comment of his own."
However, Mr Brady was acting in accordance with the Greater Dublin Area Strategic Planning Guidelines, which estimated that at least 19,000 new homes would be needed in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown until 2010 to meet housing demand.
Mr Brian Hughes, a chartered surveyor and member of the council's strategic policy committee, warned that many young people who grew up in the area were being "exiled" elsewhere because they could not afford housing in Dún Laoghaire.
He said it was this migration to Wicklow, Kildare and some of the outer Leinster counties that accounted for a downward trend in births in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and a growth rate of less than 1 per cent in its population since 1996.
The council's draft housing strategy concedes that between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of new households in the county cannot afford to buy homes there, as housing is snapped up by more affluent buyers coming in from other parts of Dublin.
To bridge this gap, Mr Gilmore proposed that up to 60 per cent of new housing should be affordable.
But when the council's law agent advised that this would breach the 2000 Planning Act, the proposal was defeated on a casting vote.
