A proposed variation to the Leitrim County Development Plan will ease restrictions on house building in the countryside.
Leitrim County Council has said the measure is aimed at rural regeneration, but An Taisce has described it as "a charter for uncontrolled development".
The variation states it will be "a basic aim of the council to ensure rural populations are strengthened" and, in particular, development will be supported where population decline has been evident.
"It is recognised that rural communities need diversity and support through persons, not just persons engaged in agriculture," the variation states in a section to be included under the heading of Basic Aim.
A second part of the variation deals with areas of outstanding natural beauty and it states that the council will "protect these areas from excessive and unnecessary development" but adds that deliberations on applications will include considerations of supporting the rural community.
Where permission is granted in such locations they would require "the highest standards of siting, design, landscaping and compatibility" and an architect's report stating the measures taken to ensure compatibility of the house with the landscape would have to be submitted.
Acting county manager Mr Sean Kielty said the council was trying to achieve rural regeneration and to ensure the survival of rural schools, post offices and Garda stations.
The population of Leitrim had fallen from 44,591 in 1946 to 25,057 in 1996. "In a case like that we have to be aware that unless people come to live in the countryside as well as in the towns, the general viability and future of the county may be at risk," Mr Kielty said.
A submission from An Taisce describes the proposed amendments to the County Development Plan as "defective". An Taisce's heritage officer Mr Ian Lumley told The Irish Times he believed the council was "seeking to relax what are already very weak controls".
The An Taisce submission, sent yesterday to the council, says it supports positive spatial, planning, fiscal and other measures to increase and revive the population of Leitrim to counteract the effect of population decline. It says a strategy of balanced regional development in the State should involve consolidating development in towns and villages in individual counties.
One-off housing in the countryside, it argues, is less sustainable for economic, social, environmental and transport issues.
Mr Lumley said Leitrim was beginning to suffer the damage caused by uncontrolled development that had been seen in Kerry, Galway and Donegal.
He pointed to the large number of houses built in the coastal Tullaghan area with individual sewage disposal over recent years. The county was now experiencing development fuelled by tax incentives, he said.
Mr Lumley said the amendments could be counterproductive as they would result in more holiday homes and second homes being built.
An Taisce's main concern was spatial and the cost of servicing the dispersed rural population. The second issue was the effect on water quality of septic tanks and single house sewage disposal, and thirdly, the visual effect on the countryside.
"We would submit that proper rural development should be based on the creation of employment and economic opportunities relevant to land-based activity," the An Taisce submission states. The example of the Organic Centre in Rossinver is given.
The environmental group, Friends of the Irish Environment, has also objected to the variation, saying there was a need for such terms as "excessive", "minimal" and "unnecessary" to be defined.
It says that if more houses are to be built in the countryside, the council should "insist that the effluent disposal from these developments be genuinely controlled and the present widespread abuses brought under control".
Mr Kielty said the major strategic problem facing Leitrim had been a lack of population. He said statistics on the houses built in the countryside in Leitrim could be misleading because small towns and villages were identified as rural rather than urban.
He said he would not say the council would "encourage" people to build houses in the countryside, but it would "allow" someone to build if it was in accordance with the development plan.
He believed young people should be allowed to build on their parents' land "rather than pushing them into towns like Sligo".
In the council's housing schemes, small clusters of up to 10 houses had been built close to post offices and schools in an attempt to build up rural villages, he said.