Sir, - Your report (October 26th) refers to Clare County Council coming under fire for its proposed restrictions on housing in rural areas.
I am surprised to hear that a representative of An Taisce said it would not support restrictions based on place of birth or nationality being placed on individuals seeking planning permission. He went on to say that development plans should be concerned with the use of land, not the origin of applicants.
Has An Taisce not been alive and well and living in the greater Dublin area over the past two decades? Both the 1983 and the 1993 Dublin County Development Plans set out strict criteria for those seeking to build (family) homes in rural and high amenity areas; applications are considered only from persons involved in agriculture or who have close family ties with the particular rural community where they propose to locate their homes. This means, for instance, that a non-farming person born and reared in the town of Skerries cannot get planning permission for a family home on a site which may be only a half mile outside the town.
The 1998 Fingal County Council Draft Development Plan proposes to continue with the application of the same policy but the criteria as set out in the Plan are even more restrictive than in the earlier plans. Perhaps a spokesperson for An Taisce might like to comment as to why the Clare County Council proposals are coming under fire while the practice in Dublin over some 16 years (at least) appears to have raised no hackles. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Forde, Skerries, County Fingal