A law lecturer campaigning against the proliferation of "oversized, gaudy" houses in rural areas has urged the Minister for the Environment to draw up national guidelines to regulate the design of new homes.
Ms Sara Dillon, a law lecturer at University College Dublin and a member of An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment, said tourists did not find Ireland pretty any more, as the landscape was being ruined by "a shocking planning free-for-all".
"Ireland is the only country in Europe where people can build any old thing in any old field. There are no rules to protect the countryside," she complained.
"No one seems to know how to change the situation because in Ireland there is this deeply entrenched belief that you can't tell people what to do. People are afraid to say anything in case they insult their neighbours.
"Sometimes we have to have our freedom restricted, and this is one instance," she added.
"Any visitor will tell you the landscape is being destroyed, but nobody seems to have the guts to say that the long-held view that Ireland is beautiful is just not true any more. Visitors wonder how this landscape could be so abused."
Calling for the Minister, Mr Dempsey, to introduce ground rules on development, she said: "For a vulnerable countryside you have to have rules. Three to four good rules on land use at national level would remove 80 per cent of the problems."
Ms Dillon added that she was pleased to see a local authority acknowledging the rural housing crisis. She was referring to the proposal by Clare County Council to restrict permission for housing development in the county to people with roots in the area.
While she did not agree entirely with their approach, Ms Dillon said, it was significant that a local authority had recognised that something needed to be done.
She said people should begin to take responsibility for their own actions, restrain themselves in choosing a design and start showing a modesty and taste that demonstrated respect for the landscape.