The government is going to allow people with a connection to a locale to build "one-off" houses. I guess we should celebrate this victory for freedom and common sense, but it just seems so wrong that such a situation could ever have existed (or even been proposed) in the first place.
The Irish Independent's Treacy Hogan's report on this breakthrough is revealing. The first sentence says, "The Government will today unveil radical new planning regulations to allow thousands of one-off houses to be built in the countryside in defiance of An Taisce". Well, I never! And, just who do these government ministers think they are, governing "in defiance" of An Taisce.
If people want to live in rural areas, I say let them. Any where you go in rural Ireland you can find abandoned settlements, even villages. Where there were 50 families, there are now one or two. I'm sure all of this depopulation is good for the scenery that An Taisce's relatively wealthy, urban-dwelling members want to see when they venture down the country, but it's totally contrary to the concepts of freedom and private property to prevent people from living in the country to preserve the scenery.
