European Parliamentarian Pat the Cope Gallagher has called comments from the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) "reckless diatribe and unfounded myths".

The Cope's response came after the president of the IPI, at an awards ceremony in Dublin, said unsustainable proliferation of one-off houses was "undermining the vibrancy of rural towns and villages" as well as causing serious environmental impacts.

However, the North West MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher has this morning reacted angrily to the remarks calling them a "cowardly attack on rural communities".

"The use of terms such as 'proliferation of one-off houses' by someone in Mr Sheeran’s position, his call to further curtail rural housing and unfounded claims that the provision of services to rural communities costs more are irresponsible. This is a recycling of a deeply flawed argument that is not based in any hard evidence," The Cope said.

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Last week, IPI President Gerry Sheeran said there had been no decline in the rate of construction of one-off houses since the Government guidelines were updated in 2005.

Mr Sheeran called for these guidelines to be radically overhauled, as there are now 450,000 one-off houses in Ireland.

He argued that one-off housing was siphoning away residential development from towns and villages because they cost the State three times more to service.

Mr Sheeran contended one-off housing was causing serious environmental impacts, both visually and on groundwater and biodiversity, and this was unsustainable in terms of traffic generation and emissions.

However, this morning, Pat The Cope retorted: "If Mr Sheeran and his colleagues had any grasp of the reality of rural areas they would realise that rural applicants pay very steep planning contribution fees for services they don’t get but that are provided elsewhere. Rural dwellers pay the full cost for their own wastewater treatment systems and never create a requirement for public lighting.

"I do agree with Mr Sheeran that protection of our groundwater is critically important but he seems unaware that very sophisticated wastewater treatment systems are installed as standard with new rural houses and are fully paid for by the resident.

"The Irish Planning Institute could do with catching up with the pace of development in technology instead of spreading myths," he said.

(DW/BMcC)