Increasing housing densities is the best way to safeguard green belts in the greater Dublin area, the outgoing Fingal county manager has said.
On his retirement yesterday, Mr Willie Soffe told The Irish Times that those seeking low-density and one-off housing in the Fingal County Council area should move to rural counties instead.
"We have got to increase densities in the Dublin region to prevent urban sprawl. We can't provide people with homes on half an acre with front and back gardens. If people want that sort of home they should return to rural Ireland."
Mr Soffe, county manager for the past eight years, said the county's last remaining rural and horticultural areas should be preserved, if not enhanced, by the creation of "more viable communities". But this should not be done through one-off housing.
"A lot of people who work in Dublin would like to live on an acre in the country. But these sort of people don't see rural areas the same way.
"For a start, they want footpaths and lighting, which is normally unheard of in rural areas. They don't like the smell of silage or the noise of farmyard machinery, and if they don't control their dogs they can become a nuisance for local farmers."
He added: "There has to be an acceptance of reasonable densities in the Dublin area, not tower blocks but something like 30-40 units per acre."
Mr Soffe, from Co Clare, worked for 30 years in Dublin Corporation, where he served as assistant city and county manager, and he said public perceptions about corruption in the planning system did not tally with his experience.
"Ninety-nine per cent of people who deal with planning have integrity and honesty," he said. "In relation to our development plan, I am satisfied we have dealt with it, and the various issues under us, in a fair and honest way and in accordance with good planning.
"Once the system is operating in an open and transparent way that's what matters. The system treats people fairly. The files are open. Anyone can look at them. We have nothing to hide."
Mr Soffe also rejected criticism of the local authority for its handling of waste management, saying its policy had been to achieve the highest level of recycling and reuse.
"There has to be residual landfill," he said. "The problem you have all the time is people want you to pick up their waste but they don't want you to put it down anywhere."
