The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has called into question the mindset of planners in relation to the development of rural life in Ireland.
Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School the Minister said: "I am not questioning the professional integrity of our planners, but I have to question the mindset within which they operate."
Mr Ó'Cuív said that some planners could "only see a hierarchy of cities, towns, hubs, and gateways" but they needed to be clear that rural Ireland is about dispersed rural communities.
He said: "Our society itself strongly recognises another hierarchy of place - that of townland, parish, county and province, but planners consistently ignore this hierarchy".
"It is a brave or foolhardy person in rural Ireland who would ignore the attachment to this ierarchy of place" he added before saying that both "in terms of Government priorities, these two spatial hierarchies can live in an uneasy equilibrium".
Mr Ó'Cuív said that the only way to halt rural decline is to develop diverse multi-sectoral local rural economies with a mix of local enterprise and access to public jobs.
And he said that a well-delivered policy of decentralisation of public jobs has a "key role" to play in developing rural life and releasing the congestion strains on our main urban areas.