Clare County Council has come under fire after proposing that "non-indigenous persons" be prohibited from building homes in rural areas which are under development pressure or in visually vulnerable areas.
The proposal is contained in a supplementary document to the draft county development plan produced at a special meeting of the council at the weekend.
In conjunction with the document, the council has published a map breaking down Clare into two zones: areas under development pressure and areas not under development pressure.
According to the map, non-indigenous persons would be prohibited from building homes on a 50-mile stretch of coastline from Kilkee to the north Clare village of Ballyvaughan, while a huge swathe of east Clare and the Ennis-Shannon corridor has also been included in areas zoned under development pressure. The proposal has been criticised by An Taisce and Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI).
Mr Tony Lowes, chairman of An Taisce's Natural Environment Committee said it could not support restrictions based on place of birth or nationality being placed on individuals seeking planning permission.
"Development plans should be concerned with the use of land, not the origins of applicants. If Clare County Council wishes to restrict vulnerable areas from development pressure, consents to applications should be linked to the use of the development," he said.
Yesterday, the founder of RRI, Mr Jim Connolly, said: "The council's bid to impose a blanket ban on non-indigenous people in certain areas is totally out of touch with reality in terms of rural communities surviving."
Since the establishment of Rural Resettlement in 1990, the group has resettled almost 400 urban-based families to 19 rural counties. Claiming that the policy may be unconstitutional, Mr Connolly said: "If the council proceeds with this policy, it is writing off these communities. I don't believe it will stand up."
In areas designated "not under development pressure", the council is proposing to adopt a "permissive approach" to rural settlement policy.
At the meeting, several council members expressed their opposition to the plan, claiming the map produced puts in place a two-tier planning system in the county and that it discriminates against a large section of the population.
Because of the divisions over the proposals, the council failed to adopt the plan and agreed to hold a further meeting on the draft plan on Friday.
