Fine Gael has given "a guarded welcome" to new guidelines on rural housing published by the Minister for the Environment today.
The party's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, added that the guidelines "obviously signal the start of the local election and European election campaigns".
Mr Allen said: "In the case of one-off rural housing, good planning practice and environmental protection that create sustainable rural communities are vital.
"In giving a guarded welcome to the announced guidelines, one must be mindful that this is an election year and also bear in mind that the National Spatial Strategy announced two years ago lies dormant at the present time and the decentralisation programme is becoming bogged down simply because public servants were not consulted adequately before the premature announcement."
Mr Allen said today's guidelines "obviously signal the start of the local election and European election campaigns".
The Labour Party's environment spokesman Mr Eamon Gilmore said the draft planning guidelines had more to do with "keeping an eye on the forthcoming elections than [with] the planning of housing in the country".
"These draft guidelines have been introduced in the absence of any serious research or analysis done into the reality of rural housing. These guidelines are only a draft and it is misleading to suppose that they will have an immediate or any impact on decisions made by planners in individual cases," he said.
"The Labour Party will be studying these guidelines very carefully and will respond once completed."