Farming should no longer be the only profession that qualifies people for planning permission in rural areas, Tom Parlon, the Minister of State for Finance, said yesterday at the launch of a party document on the rural planning system.
At the National Ploughing Championships, Mr Parlon said rural dwellers should have the same rights as urban dwellers when it comes to deciding where they live.
Speaking on behalf of the Progressive Democrats, he said: "The policy we are launching is based on one fundamental principle - that local people who live and work in an area, or have strong family ties with an area, are entitled to build homes in that area unless there are compelling safety or environmental reasons why they should not."
He added: "We must end the slow death sentence for rural Ireland that current planning regulations have created. The definition of a local person should include emigrants returning to the rural area in which they grew up."
He said it must also cover people born and reared in rural areas with no access to family lands and people living in a rural area for seven years who have forged strong links with the local community.
As well as defining the word "local", the document proposed the establishment of three independent appeals boards within An Bord Pleanála to cover the three non-Dublin European constituencies. These boards would include representatives of rural community organisations.
The document also seeks the publication on the web of information about the success rate of planning applications submitted by engineers and architects. This information was already in the public domain but was not readily available.
The policy, drawn up by a committee under the chairmanship of Noel Grealish TD, also recommended that in areas experiencing population decline, there should be incentives created for people to move into these areas rather than the barriers that currently exist.
It also suggested that where a person was seeking permission for a house specially designed to accommodate a person with a disability, there should be few planning restrictions put in their way, other than the necessary environmental and road safety provisions.
The policy document concluded that "with a more balanced and just approach to rural planning, we can create rural communities with a sustainable future to allow people within these communities to reap the many benefits associated with country living".
Meanwhile, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association announced that its president, Malcolm Thompson, had brokered a deal with the developers of a wind farm in Bantry, Co Cork, which included the grounding of some cable and the avoidance of environmentally sensitive areas and lands.