The Tánaiste is promising the biggest overhaul of rural housing rules in two decades.
Simon Harris told a Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last night it represents a shift away from planning practices that have held rural communities back for far too long.
Mr Harris is promising an easing of planning laws will make it easier for families to build homes in the countryside. He says restrictions on ribbon development – the practice of building houses along rural roadsides – and caps on homes built on family farm holdings will be eased, with the changes going to Cabinet early next month.
He says anyone with a social or economic need to live in a rural area will have a reasonable expectation of getting planning permission.
The Tánaiste also pointed to Fine Gael’s Galway West bye-election victory – saying voters have given the party a mandate that must be accepted with humility.
