I wish to oppose the proposed amendment to the rural housing policy, I believe that the current rural housing policy should not be altered, amending the policy and bringing in tighter restrictions will decimate rural communities and it will make life difficult for many, people already voted against changing the rural housing policy and they don’t want the changes so why is it coming up again?

It is unaceptable that these amendments keep coming up time and time again instead of just accepting that people don’t want the current rural housing policy to change in this way.

The opinions and point of view of the people who live in rural communities or those who wish to build in a rural community are the onions who matter the most as they are the people who it will directly affect. 

It will affect peoples way of life, will increase traffic on the road, increase air pollution, increase noise pollution and will turn rural areas in to urban clone areas, there are no benefits to people in these areas.

The proposed changes will only serve the interests of large developers and will not benefit the people of the rural communities, these are the people that vote in local elections, their opinion on changes to planning in rural areas is of the utmost importance and should be noted.

The majority of my family come from and reside in rural areas, areas with strong community spirit and GAA backgrounds, changing the policy will put a stop to these things.

I have previously lived in a rural area and I hope to return to living in a rural area in the future, if I purchase land, I want to be able to build a one off house on it, the restrictions that are proposed will make impossible for this to happen.

People who own their own land should be able to build on it if they wish, the proposed restrictions will aim to stop the fundamental rights of landowners, no one has the right to do this, a lot of these people’s families have owned this land for generations and have been there first.

I know a lot of family members and friends that have already had difficulty obtaining planning permission in previous years and adding further restrictions would make it impossible to build their own one off houses.

Changing this policy will have disastrous effects, people are just getting back to some sense of normality due to the covid-19 pandemic and now this is another worry for them, it will have huge economic, financial and social repercussions, not to mention affecting tourism (People visiting Ireland want to see lush green fields and picturesque house, they do not want to urbanised rural areas) and mental health amongst other issues.

Please listen to the people that will be affected and realise that rural areas need preservations not just for people now but for future generations