Local authorities have been warned by the Minister for the Environment that they must be more flexible in granting planning permission for one-off housing.
Mr Cullen told the Dáil that the Government's policy had been set out when it launched the national spatial strategy.
"I am amplifying that to give clarity to everyone on one-off rural housing. For the benefit of the deputies, there is a fundamental change. I am not going to allow local authorities to prevent people born, reared and living in areas from building houses in those areas. That is the big change."
He said that guidelines under the Planning and Development Act were at an advanced stage of preparation, and he hoped to issue a public consultation document before the end of the year.
The Minister said the rural settlement policy framework, contained in the strategy, aimed to sustain and renew established rural communities while strengthening the structure of villages and smaller settlements to support local economies, ensuring that key assets were protected to support the quality of life and also ensure that settlement policies were responsive to the local circumstances in different areas.
"It is of particular importance, as the Taoiseach and I have made clear, that we cater for those who have roots in an area and make an economic contribution to it. It is vitally important that there be certainty and consistency in the implementation by planning authorities of Government policy in the matter, through their own development plans and in the operation of the development control system under planning legislation."
The Fine Gael environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, claimed that the Taoiseach had "dived in" on the issue in an opportunistic way because of next summer's local elections. There were widely different views on one-off housing, and he wondered if the Minister would take them all on board before issuing guidelines.
"Will he consider waste management and infrastructural requirements? He should take these views on board before diving in opportunistically before a local election to catch as many votes as possible without thinking the problem through. Even at this stage, will the Minister consider setting up a commission of short duration which would consult all views to create an informed approach to this very complex problem?"
Mr Cullen replied: "With all due respect to the deputy, I am becoming more and more convinced that nobody reads any reports any more. I am not going to be a Minister who commissions reports all over the place for the sake of it."
He added he was going to refine existing policy on foot of all the different elements throughout the State.
"But the one thing I cannot do - and any Minister would be foolish to do so - is to prescribe an absolutist position on one-off housing for the entire country. What is required in Dublin may be very different from what is required in Kerry."
Mr Cullen said that a difficulty in Ireland was the existence of 88 separate planning authorities.
"Before anyone jumps up to say I am going to get rid of the various planning authorities, I am not. But correlation among them is very difficult."
