Fine Gael has proposed an "integrated landscape management strategy" to protect the landscape which, it believes, is under threat from many aspects of modern living.
In government the party would establish an inter-departmental body to report in 18 months on how each department addressed the issue of landscape quality, according to a document published by Fine Gael yesterday. The party's spokesman on the Office of Public Works, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, highlighted a number of developments detrimental to the Irish landscape. These include:
The low number of parks and green spaces in the urban landscape;
the erosion of upland regions through over-grazing and poor pasture management;
the erosion of the architectural and archaeological heritage;
the intrusion of masts and pylons into the landscape;
the standardisation of shop fronts, street furniture, shopping centres and filling stations in towns and villages;
the proliferation of new houses in the countryside which are not in keeping with traditional design;
the loss of diversity in flora and fauna and the loss of wildlife habitats.
Rapid house building, the development of industrial and office accommodation as well as major tourism projects were bound to further affect the landscape, according to the policy document. "The landscape as we know it today will inevitably change because of these intrusions - we cannot expect to freeze our landscape. The challenge is how we manage this growth, not how we frustrate it."