The President, Mrs McAleese, and her family have finally won the right to build a house with views over a lake in the tax-designated area of Co Roscommon - a year and nine months after making the first planning application.
An Bord Pleanála, which refused permission for the original scheme on visual amenity and public health grounds, has just approved the latest plan on the basis that it would provide a permanent family home on an intact agricultural holding.
As a result, the board ruled, it would not constitute urban-generated housing in a rural area and would not, therefore, be contrary to the policy set out in the Government's Sustainable Development: A Strategy for Ireland, published in 1997.
The board also took into account the location in proximity to a ruined house on the McAleeese holding, the distance between the new house and its sewage treatment system from Lough Eidin and "the design and single-storey nature of the proposed house". Subject to the 10 conditions it has laid down, the board said it was satisfied the proposed development would not seriously injure the amenities of the area, would not be prejudicial to public health and would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety.
However, the President's husband, Dr Martin McAleese, will have to enter into a legally-binding agreement under Section 38 of the 1963 Planning Act sterilising the remainder of the holding from further housing development for a minimum of 10 years.
An Bord Pleanala's decision also specified that the house - designed by Mr Arthur Gibney, former president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland - "shall be first occupied by the applicant or a member of his immediate family".
The McAleeses are also required to submit for agreement by Roscommon County Council details of the materials, colours and textures of its external finishes, their proprietary sewage treatment system and the construction of an access road.
According to the order signed by Ms Margaret Byrne, a member of An Bord Pleanála, the McAleeses will also have to pay a contribution to the county council towards the provision of a public water supply facilitating the proposed development.
Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), which had appealed against the county council's decision to approve the latest scheme, said it could understand why the board had granted permission on the basis that the house would be a "permanent home".
But a spokesman for FIE warned that the board's decision had "signed a death-knell for this unspoiled rural area" as it was likely to "open the floodgates for development all along the Upper Shannon, encouraged by the provision of tax incentives".
