The chairman of an Oireachtas committee yesterday likened An Taisce to the "British landlords" who evicted their tenants in the 19th century because of its objections to housing in the countryside.
Fianna Fáil TD for Meath, Mr Johnny Brady, who is chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, said "people from Dublin 4" were probably secret members of An Taisce moving to Co Meath and objecting to local young couples building houses there.
The committee was holding a hearing at which the president of An Taisce, Mr Frank Corcoran, and Mr James Nix, a post-graduate researcher at the Dublin Institute of Technology, were responding to questions raised by members at an earlier hearing in July.
Mr Brady ruled out quotations from a 1976 An Foras Forbartha report on the extra costs of servicing urban-generated single houses in rural areas with post, water, electricity and telephones on the basis that it had no bearing on the issue.
Sen Peter Callanan (FF) said it was "irrelevant" for An Taisce to quote examples of planning in Britain, Canada, the US and the Netherlands. Referring to Britain, he said: "We fought to break that link. We have our own culture here, thank God."
Mr Tom Hayes TD (FG, Tipperary South) said he found it "terribly disappointing" that An Taisce seemed to have "no human feeling" for individual people in rural Ireland.
Welcoming the Taoiseach's recent statement on housing in the countryside, Mr Hayes said all reviews of county development plans should be "put on ice" until the Government clarified its thinking on the issue.
Green Party TD Mr Ciarán Cuffe, who identified himself as a member of the Irish Planning Institute, the Royal Town Planning Institute and An Taisce, denied allegations that there was a bias against rural areas in the State's planning schools.
Replying to criticisms, Mr Corcoran stressed that An Taisce only appealed against four out of every 1,000 planning permissions granted and that it was An Bord Pleanála which ultimately decided whether or not to uphold these appeals. It believed that housing was a "basic human right" which would be greatly facilitated if the Government removed the speculative element involved.
