Eimear Haughey, daughter of former taoiseach Charles Haughey, has been refused planning permission for a one-off house on the grounds of the family home, Abbeville, in north Co Dublin.
She has appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála, stating she wants to be close to her "ageing parents" who she said might move to the house if she receives planning permission.
Calling Kinsealy "home", she wrote to the board earlier this month: "I have reached a time in my life where I would like to be in a position to return 'home' and that is why I would like to build a house for my own personal occupancy [and possibly that of my parents]."
Ms Haughey, who is married to the businessman John Mulhern but signs her maiden name in the planning papers, has lived on her stud farm on the Curragh, Co Kildare, since 1989. She was refused permission by Fingal County Council to build on the greenbelt site on the basis that she had failed to prove she had a "genuine need" to live in the area. Her brothers, Seáand Ciaran, live in houses either side of her proposed development on Baskin Road.
In her application, Ms Haughey said she had operated a stud farm at Abbeville, which was sold two years ago to developers. However, the council said Ms Haughey had failed to demonstrate she was actively engaged in running the family stud farm.
The planning inspectors report that, while there were a small number of horses on the estate, "there was no evidence of the breeding of horses that would be evidience of an ongoing stud farm". It also noted that there was a planning application for a tourism and hotel complex on the estate and farmland. It also refused planning permission on the basis of a potential traffic hazard on Baskin Road.
In a letter earlier this month to the board Ms Haughey said she had lived in Kinsealy for over 20 years and had run a stud farm there since 1974.
She said the Abbeville stud farm had been producing horses for all of that period, and she described the report of the planning inspector in relation to stud activity as "inaccurate".
Ms Haughey also describes the detail of stud activity at Abbeville and states that she has been involved in the Kinsealy community for 35 years, and says that she also qualifies under the Government's rural planning guidelines.