Roscommon County Council is expected to make a decision within the next week on plans by the President, Mrs McAleese, and her family for a lakeside house, outbuildings and a jetty on Lough Eidin.

The planning application was lodged on June 22nd by building consultants in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, on behalf of the President's husband, Dr Martin McAleese, who gave Aras an Uachtarain as his address.

A substantial two-storey house is envisaged, facing south-west towards the lake. At 204 sq m (2,200 sq ft), it is just below the maximum qualifying size for owner-occupier tax incentives under the upper Shannon rural renewal scheme.

Behind the house and perpendicular to it, single-storey outbuildings with a floor area of 102 sq m (1,100 sq ft) will provide garage space for at least two cars as well as a suite of utility and/or storage rooms ancillary to the main dwelling.

The plans were drawn up by C. Gray and Associates, a building consultancy headed by Mr Conor Gray. He has a BSc degree in surveying and his firm employs some architectural technicians. "Our brief was planning and we basically designed what they wanted," Mr Gray says.

The front elevation is five bays wide with narrow windows in the style of a "traditional country farmhouse". There is a full-length living-room on one side of the entrance hall, with an asymmetrical fireplace and French doors leading to a patio, and a centrally positioned grand staircase leading to the first floor, with four bedrooms and a bathroom.

According to the site plan submitted to Roscommon County Council, boundaries will be screened by augmenting hedgerows with native deciduous trees, such as ash, beech and oak. Shrubs will be planted around a lawn to the front. Major excavations will be required to produce level ground on the 4.6-acre sloping site. A stonefaced retaining wall will partially enclose a paved courtyard to the rear of the house and its outbuildings.

Though only three miles north-west of Carrick-on-Shannon, the proposed development is located some distance from a public road and will therefore not be visible to passers-by. It will, however, be visible from other locations around Lough Eidin.

Roscommon County Council, in common with other local authorities, has a policy of discouraging "one-off" housing in scenic rural locations, but it is coming under increasing pressure to do so because of the tax-incentive scheme for the upper Shannon region.

Under the scheme, which covers counties Leitrim and Longford as well as large parts of Sligo, Cavan and Roscommon, anyone building a house of up to 210 sq m for owner-occupation can write off half the cost against tax.