Ireland’s first "eco-village" has requested planning permission to begin building work this summer.

The Village, Cloughjordan, north County Tipperary, will consist of 130 dwellings of apartments, semi-detached and detached houses.

The development will also consist of shops, playgrounds and communal facilities, with the use of the 67-acre site being divided equally for housing, farmland and woodland.

The company behind the project, Sustainable Projects Ireland (SPI), says the goal is to create a sustainable development, built using techniques and materials that have minimal impact on the environment.

SPI’s Dave Flannery told the Irish Independent: "The infrastructure has just been completed and the first applications for full planning permission for homes have been lodged."

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Those living in The Village will be expected to commit themselves to ecological, social and economic sustainability.

The project's resources will include a group heating network of solar panels and a central unit fired by coppiced wood, all from the development's own woodland and other sustainable wood products.

The Village's own energy grid will source electrical power from a renewable energy provider and allotments will be available to each household to grow its own vegetables and produce.

SPI says the future occupants of the "self-reliant community" range from professionals to pensioners, from all corners of the World.

Musician Deidre O'Leary and her husband, speaking to the Independent, say buying a site in The Village has fulfilled a long-term aspiration.

"The materials are coming from the immediate surroundings, it's exciting to think that we'll be living in a house we designed ourselves, where the walls aren't plasterboard. I'm also looking forward to planting our own apple trees and vegetables and watching them grow," she said.

(PR)