This article is from page 12 of the 2005-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
OFFICIAL figures for one- off houses have been con- sistently over-estimated, according to a rural rights campaigner.
Prof Seamus Caulfield of the Irish Rural Dwellers As- sociation said that while 49 per cent of Clare’s popula- tion currently lived in the Open countryside, an aver- age of only 38 per cent of the planning permissions granted over the past year had been for one-off rural houses.
CSO figures had wrongly and consistently overstated the number of one-off hous- es by including houses in the
back gardens of Dublin city and all other cities and towns as one-off houses, for statis- tical purposes, he claimed.
Echoing Prof Caulfield, Independent MEP Marian Harkin said that planning decisions in Clare did not reflect the rural population of the county, or the need to preserve viable population in the rural areas.
She said it was essential to preserve the balance be- tween urban and rural popu- ETH Toyatce
“Tt is a major scandal that the people who have the greatest input into produc- ing our planning laws, have not even known the correct
statistics of the number and type of houses being built in the country,” she said.
Despite this, planning reg- ulations and guidelines had been produced, which were geared to restricting the preservation of viable rural population and pressuring people to live in towns and villages, she said.
“Recent CSO figures have revealed that for the first quarter of 2005, a higher percentage of plan- ning permissions for one-off houses were granted in the Dun Laoire/Rathdown area of Dublin city than in the whole of County Clare – a patently ludicrous situation”, said MEP Harkin.
Ms Harkin said that a sub- stantial campaign sustained by some national media and “influencers” had led to the creation and maintenance of a prejudice against grant- ing planning permission for one-off houses, in every county of Ireland including ETc
“This situation must be changed by insisting on the creation of an accurate ba- sis for housing statistics and analysis produced by the CSO and the Economic and Social Research Institute, so that planning regulations and planning decision are in future based on facts rather than the present fantasy,’ she said.