The row over planning in Kerry continues to escalate. A postal campaign this week by the Irish Rural Dwellers Association (IRDA) has asked householders in Kerry to support the association's drive to allow for holiday home development and to encourage one-off housing in rural areas in the new draft county development plan.
Mr James Doyle, a spokesman for the IRDA in Kerry and a member of the IFA, said yesterday there was a spontaneous groundswell of support for their campaign.
The IRDA was formed to address issues such as depopulation of the countryside.
Up to 1,000 members were now members of the Kerry branch of the IRDA, Mr Doyle said.
"We are providing a balance against An Taisce and An Bord Pleanála," he said.
The Irish Rural Dwellers Association are seeking "the total and unequivocal abolition of the occupancy clause as a condition attached to a planning application". Other planning conditions they wish to see abolished are "the necessity to be from a locality", having a need for housing and being employed in the area.
The IRDA and the IFA maintain they have a right to sell sites for holiday homes on land they own and to build houses for family members.
The new county development plan seeks to curb the growth of one-off housing in the countryside and does so partly by the use of occupancy clauses and the clustering of holiday homes near existing villages.