Criticism of the concept of designation in planning and development, particularly as it applies to rural areas, was voiced at the 30th Merriman Summer School in Ennistymon, Co Clare, last evening.
Ms Fidelma Mullane, a specialist in "vernacular architecture and heritage planning", said that when development designation is bestowed on rural areas, it is generally for the benefit of tourists or providers of these essential tourist services.
The seaside resort town can develop a standard of facilities to which the visitor is accustomed - "Foxrock-sur-Mer and Lahinch 4", said Ms Mullane, who lectures part-time in UCC.
Designation in rural areas consisted for the most part of ring fencing to impede development, including national parks, nature reserves, national heritage areas, special conservation areas and areas which were specially protected.
Where development was allowed, it was to facilitate access to such protected areas by tourists.
She acknowledged that designation had been an important vehicle for the promotion of physical development in towns and cities in recent years, including the urban renewal scheme and the designated seaside resorts scheme.
But, she said, the primary aim of designation in cities and towns had been to promote development while the main focus of designation in rural areas had been to ensure that development could not take place.
"In cities and towns, areas are ring-fenced for intensive development. Designation definitions and legislation are derived in Government offices in Dublin; ultimately, the greatest advantages of development and no-development designations accrue to urban dwellers, facilitating development and `progress' where they live, and preventing it where they play - allowing them to achieve maximum incomes and stress levels at home and at work through traffic congestion, pollution and noise."
Physical designation in rural areas means that this fatigued urban dweller, the tourist, will have a good supply of scenic views, "development-free" environments and stress-free zones together with those desert island "must-haves", such as balconies and tax breaks.
She told the summer school - whose theme this year is Clare and Thomond - that designation-type development must end.
"Designation is anathema to sustainable development - to social, cultural and equitable development . . . this kind of development promotion must be replaced with the proper structures and resources which facilitate good planning . . . even if planning should remain in the realm of planning professionals, planning departments in most local authorities seem seriously under-resourced," she said.
Clare County Council did not have a county architect; an arts officer; a heritage officer; a county archaeologist; a tourism officer, or a park and wildlife officer, she added. "The latter could have responsibility, for example, for the promotion of community parks, open spaces in towns, etc."
In the absence of these professionals, the task of implementing good planning practice is impossible.
"Proper practices and methods of production in all aspects of daily life, whether farming, industrial production or services must be facilitated by the provision of the structures and resources which facilitate organic development - good planning," she said.