The junior minister with responsibility for rural development has called for an urgent public debate on the role of An Bord Pleanβla, which he says appears to be "at total variance" with local authorities in cases of one-off houses in rural areas and in danger of undermining the policies of elected councillors.
Mr Eamon ╙ Cuiv also called for an acceptance of the traditional "townland" rather than the street village as the focus of community life in rural areas.
Until recently, An Bord Pleanβla's role in planning policy was not a major issue. But in the light of the increase in third party appeals - and of An Taisce's intention to appeal one-off rural houses granted permission - the role of the planning appeals board had to be scrutinized, Mr ╙ Cuiv said.
Whereas their role was to judge individual planning decisions, An Bord Pleanβla appeared to be developing "a parallel policy", which was in conflict with development plans voted into being by elected members, he said.
One piece of advice he came to give rural dwellers with planning difficulties as a councillor was "don't go to Bord Pleanβla 'cause they will turn you down," and try to sort it out locally.
Mr ╙ Cuiv was speaking during a forum in Glenbeigh, Co Kerry, during a tour of areas on the recently announced Clar programme to revitalize rural areas. £20 million of matching funds is being made available to 16 areas as a catalyst for capital programmes. Those areas will also have speedier access to NDP money for roads, sewerage, electricity and communications, Mr ╙ Cuiv said.
There was a serious danger now An Bord Pleanβla would "disenfranchise" the local authorities and their elected members, he said. "It is undermining the ability of elected members to decide their own planning policies. And we cannot have that."
A high number, perhaps all the one-off houses that were granted permission by county councils and afterwards appealed by third parties to An Bord Pleanβla, were refused planning, he said.
Logically then, if all of the 14,000 one-off houses granted permission last year had been appealed they would have been turned down, Mr ╙ Cuiv said.
"It would appear that the policy of An Bord Pleanβla is at total variance with the policy of a lot of local authorities, and that raises very serious questions that will have to be addressed immediately." There had to be planning controls, Mr ╙ Cuiv said. But there also had to be an understanding of rural life by An Bord Pleanβla and other bodies.
It had to become acceptable that in rural areas the townland "which looks like scattered houses here and there" is a community with a focus, Mr ╙ Cuiv said.
"We must keep the structure of the townlands. The village to us is not the street village. It is the townland."
Mr Diarmuid Collins, secretary of An Bord Pleanβla, rejected the minister's criticisms.
"The board assesses every application on the basis of the individual merits of the case. The board has no policy in relation to one-off housing in the countryside but is obliged to have regard to the development plan for the particular county," Mr Collins said.
Mr Paul O'Donoghue, chairman of Kerry County Council, said An Board Pleanβla appeared to be made up of conservationists and environmentalists and it needed to reflect the people living in the country.