A blanket ban on one-off rural housing would worsen the plight of farmers, the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) has warned the Government.
Presenting a submission on planning and rural development to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, the president of the IAVI, Mr Aidan O'Hogan, said planning restrictions in rural areas should be eased and standardised to ease the supply of affordable housing.
Mr O'Hogan called for an amendment to the Planning and Development Act, 2000, to prevent what he called "the continuing and escalating withering of Ireland's rural population". He said agriculture was facing a bleak future and many farmers had "become used to selling the odd site to raise cash in times of need".
With "so many planning authorities at liberty to adopt their own policy" on rural and one-off housing, he said the situation was "very inconsistent".
Some local authorities had restricted development to those employed in the area, while others were required to undertake not to sell the house for five, seven or 10 years.
The situation was not helped by the "evident mobility within the planning profession" or the failure of local authorities "to properly police" special conditions. "We simply cannot allow domestic planning policies to simultaneously prevent population of rural areas when there are individuals who wish to live in those areas," he said.
The IAVI submission to Government makes 15 recommendations including: the creation of a uniform housing policy; the extension of the rural tax designation; the wider use of bio-cycles for drainage; and the provision of grants or interest-free loans to property developers prepared to enhance local infrastructure.
It suggests that new rural housing should be developed in clusters of three to four homes - but not exclusively - and be prohibited only if there is an adverse impact on a special amenity or landscape conservation area, or if there are inadequate water services or serious traffic problems.
The document envisages similar restrictions on similar-sized clusters of holiday homes.
Calling on the Government to amend the Planning and Development Act, Mr O'Hogan said the Act denied affordable housing to many prospective home-owners.
"It is undermining traditional market forces that affect selling/ supply and demand," he added, "and will embarrass Ireland if successfully challenged by the European Commission."
