Proposal aims to halt one-off housing in rural north Dublin

The building of new houses in the countryside of north county Dublin will be almost completely banned under a proposal to be considered by county councillors in Fingal later this week.

Under the council's new rural housing policy, only the children of local farmers would be allowed build homes in rural parts of Fingal. Furthermore, the exemption would only apply to one child per rural family and the new home would have to share a common entrance with the existing family home.

The proposal is likely to re-ignite the controversy over one-off housing in areas of the countryside experiencing large population pressures.

While other local authorities, notably in Wicklow and Clare, have introduced restrictions on outsiders building rural houses, the policy proposed in Fingal is the most swingeing yet.

"It's true the policy is more draconian than most but it has to be this way," says Mr David O'Connor, the head of services in Fingal County Council.

"If we were to open the flood gates to rural development the whole county would be covered with ribbon development, so we had to take a hard line." The policy would "almost entirely stop" development in the countryside, while encouraging development within villages, he said.

The council hopes to concentrate future development in north county Dublin in existing urban and village centres. To balance its restrictive policy in rural areas, it is making more housing land available in the villages.

It also proposes that 75 per cent of new houses in these areas should be reserved for local people. These are defined as people currently living in a village, or in the rural hinterland, and who have been living there for at least 10 years. Those with a father, mother, son, daughter, son-in-law or daughter-in-law meeting these residence requirements will also be eligible.

Mr O'Connor said that "unfortunately" the council could only control the first occupancy of a home, thereby leaving open the possibility of a resale to outsiders. The restriction was, therefore "an entirely artificial scenario", he conceded.

The plan is likely to come under fire from some councillors when it comes up for discussion at a meeting on Wednesday.

Existing restrictions on development have led to complaints from local people about the difficulty of obtaining planning permission.