One-off housing - Citizendia

One-off housing is a term used in The Republic of Ireland to refer to the building of individual rural houses, outside of towns and villages. Ireland ( Irish: Éire, ˈeːrʲə is a country in north-western Europe. The term is used to contrast with housing developments where multiple units are constructed as part of a housing estate or city street. A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development Less commonly, the term is used to refer to infill housing in suburban areas. There is currently much debate about the desirability of this type of development.

1 Characteristics of recent one-off houses
2 Prevalence
3 Debate
4 Proponents and opponents
5 Circumstances under which one-off housing may be encouraged
6 See also
7 References

Characteristics of recent one-off houses

Other than being located outside any town or village, a typical one-off house built in the last twenty years is likely to be a bungalow of concrete block construction 1,500-2,500 square feet in floor area, with a rectangular footprint and a pitched roof. A bungalow (બંગલો baṅglo, बंगला baṅglā) is a type of single-storey House that originated in India. Dormer windows are often set in the roof, indicating a converted loft. A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface The building is sited in a rectangular plot of around ½-1 acre. Windows are typically double-glazed with white uPVC frames. A garage with pitched roof is located to one side and cars are parked in front of the house. A fence separates the front of the plot from the road with a single entrance for cars marked by concrete gate posts and a cattle grid. A cattle grid or cattle guard – also known as a vehicle pass or in New Zealand, a cattle stop – is a type of obstacle used to

More ornate houses may have Spanish style features such as an arched portico and terra cotta tiles. A portico is a Porch that is leading to the entrance of a building or extended as a Colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway supported by Columns Terra cotta ( Italian: "baked earth" is a Ceramic. Its uses include vessels water & waste water pipes and surface embellishment in Building construction Some dwellings make classical allusions by placing pillars before the front door, supporting a pediment over an open porch. A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure ( Entablature) typically supported by A porch is a structure attached to a building forming a covered entrance to a vestibule or doorway Others make use of Victorian features, such as bay windows cast iron lamp stands and red brick walls. A bay window is a Window space projecting outward from the main Walls of a building and forming a bay in a room either square or Polygonal in plan

A septic tank is used for sewage treatment, a well is drilled to provide fresh water, while a satellite dish provides television reception. Description A septic tank generally consists of tanks between the size of 1000 and 2000 gallons (4000 - 7500 litres which is connected to an inlet wastewater pipe at one end and A satellite dish is a type of Parabolic antenna that receives or transmits electromagnetic signals to and from another location typically a satellite

Prevalence

Government officials stated at a planning conference in 2001 that 36% of dwellings built in 2000 in Ireland were one-off houses. ^[1]. Recent years have seen a huge increase in the supply of all types of housing in Ireland with 547,000 houses, equivalent to a third of the total national housing stock, built in the last ten years^[2]

A 2002 publication by the ESRI reported that one third of Ireland's housing stock consists of one-off houses. ^[3]

Debate

The debate centres around the presumed rights of Irish people to live where and how they like versus the presumed obligation of the Irish state to curtail development patterns that it considers detrimental to society as a whole. There is a spectrum of opinion ranging from those who would oppose or allow all isolated rural development to those who would allow for isolated rural development in various circumstances.

Right to build on ones's own land

There are two versions of this argument: that people should have the right to either build on land they own or else that people should have the right to build a house near to where their families live.

"Surely, if the culture of rural areas is to be preserved, then people from the countryside should not be routinely denied the opportunity to build a family home in their place of origin. "

Éamon Ó Cuív^[4]

Traditional land use patterns

Dr Séamus Caulfield, retired professor of archaeology at University College Dublin, has stated that Irish Stone Age rural settlements were dispersed throughout the countryside but that in recent years planners were using British Anglo-Saxon planning models that emphasise "settlement in urban areas - nucleation settlements". Éamon Ó Cuív (born 23 June 1950 is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and is currently the Minister for Community Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs. University College Dublin (UCD (An Coláiste Ollscoile Baile Átha Cliath - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland Dublin (An The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which Humans widely used stone for toolmaking ^[5]

Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has supported the view that one-off housing is a continuation of the traditional land use patterns in Ireland for millennia. Dick Roche (Risteard de Róiste born 30 March 1947 is a senior Irish Fianna Fáil politician

"We have a dispersed pattern of settlement going back thousands of years. " ^[6]

In contrast, An Tasice has argued^[7] that early settlements were nucleated and communal, often surrounded by ringforts for protection. Ringforts are fortified settlements that are generally deemed to be from the Iron Age, Early Christian or possibly the Early Medieval period It also argues that the environmental effects of one-off housing in the Stone Age were different from those observed in a car-dependent modern lifestyle.

Health

Because the residents of one-off housing are more car-dependent than those living in towns and villages, organisations such as An Taisce have stated that these groups are more likely to suffer from obesity. ^[8]

Senator Mary Henry has pointed out that one-off houses are often built without any footpath connection to a local town, thus discouraging walking. Mary Elizabeth Frances Henry (born 11 May 1940 in Blackrock Cork is an Irish politician and a former Independent member of Seanad Éireann. ^[9]

Energy Use

Irish organisations such as FEASTA (The foundation for the economics of sustainability) and COMHAR (The national sustainable development partnership), have made the case that the increased demand for private car use that follows from one-off housing development will lead to a greater average carbon footprint for residents of this type of dwelling. The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (FEASTA is an Irish organisation which works to identify how a sustainable society would look and how it could A carbon footprint is a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of Greenhouse gases produced measured in units of carbon Increased CO₂ pollution will, they claim, have negative environmental implications and lead to possible fines under the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing Greenhouse gases in an effort ^[10] ^[11]

Lower quality and higher priced services

By their dispersed nature, one-off houses are built further away from commercial, utility, social and emergency services than urban dwellings. As a result, the cost of providing these services is increased. ^[12] Even where services are sold at the same price as in urban areas, the quality is often poorer with, for example, frequent electricity power cuts, potholed roads, longer waits for emergency services and poor quality of internet access.

Subsidies

The increased cost of service provision to one-off houses must be paid either by the householder or absorbed by the service provider. In the latter case, The Irish Planning Institute has referred to this cost transfer as a subsidy.

". . . in the postal service. . . all householders pay the same price for the service although deliveries to country homes cost 4 times more"

Dr Diarmuid O Grada, MIPI ^[13]

The same report identified other subsidies to one-off housing as: school transport, rural road maintenance, increased costs when upgrading national roads, environmental costs from pollution due to septic tanks, and uneven application of social and affordable housing levies between urban and rural houses.

By contrast, supporters of one-off housing speculate that subsidies may be paid by rural taxpayers whenever large infrastructure projects are constructed by the state in Dublin from central exchequer funds.

"Certain people in urban areas are concerned that it is their tax euro that are subventing those of us based outside the pale. Who has paid for the infrastructure projects on the east coast, such as Luas, the port tunnel and other large-scale multi-million pound projects? "

Senator Timmy Dooley^[14]

However, other commentators see one-off housing as actually undermining efforts to deliver national infrastructure, and unambiguously transferring costs to urban and suburban dwellers. Timmy Dooley (born 13 February 1969 is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician Economist David McWilliams writes^[15]

“Let us be very clear: if we have one-off housing, we cannot have a functioning public transport system, public health service, public education system or postal system, never mind universal access to broadband or cable. …….

So who pays? The worker who has abided by the laws, who has bought a place in a town or a village and who is not lucky enough to inherit land. ”

It has been argued by Éamon Ó Cuív, T. D. , Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, that the marginal cost of supplying services to new one-off houses is low. ^[4] Irish planning commentator James Nix says^[16]

"The Minister’s primary argument can be described as “the house at the end of the valley point”. James Nix was a Green Party candidate for Limerick West, Ireland in the 2007 Dáil election. It posits the following: where utility lines, pipelines and post are already delivered to a house at the end of a valley, then there can be no argument against ribbon development on the road leading to that house. It must be said that this argument has an initial attractiveness to it. To some extent, however, it overlooks the fact that the “house at the end of the valley” is usually served at shoestring capacity. In other words a whole new infrastructure would be required to accommodate the addition of three or four houses on the road going into the valley. Even where the services leading to the house at the end of the valley have untapped capacity, the previously expressed criticisms of urban-focused one-off housing are not displaced. The postal company still has to serve an additional three or four houses using a van or car. Household wastes are more expensive to collect or treat, and so on. Finally, the house at the end of the road into the valley is likely to be connected with a farming or forestry concern. It generates comparatively few traffic movements as compared with commuter-focused housing. "

Rural depopulation

It is argued by Dick Roche that

"The most important ingredient in rural development is population. " ^[6]

The implication of this argument is that permitting one-off housing sustains rural populations by making it economically feasible for people to live in rural areas.

There are two counter-arguments: that one-off housing draws people out of rural towns and villages, stifling the growth of these regions ^[17], or else that population growth is not desirable in 'ultra-rural' areas that ought rather to become natural recreational areas with land-owners employed in land-maintenance, forestry and tourism-related services. ^[18]

Aesthetics

One-off housing is sometimes criticised for being ugly or for forming a stark contrast with the surrounding countryside.

Supporters of one-off housing argue that its style represents the vernacular, modern, rural building tradition in Ireland.

Appeal to motive arguments

Opponents of one-off housing sometimes claim the motivation for this type of development is financial. Appeal to motive is a pattern of argument which consists in challenging a thesis by calling into question the motives of its proposer Their argument is that due to the presumed Irish property bubble, it has become far cheaper to build rather than buy a house in Ireland and that one-off housing regulations allow for the conversion of inexpensive agricultural land into plots often worth more than €150,000 per site. They argue that farmers have become reliant on housing as a cash crop, ^[19] while one-off builders are motivated by the capital gains they expect to make on their property. In Agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for Money.

By contrast, advocates of one-off housing may characterise those who would limit this type of development as Dublin 4 urbanites^[20] motivated by a desire to maintain the hegemony of cities and put country people in their place. Dublin 4 is a postal district of Dublin, Ireland including the suburbs of Sandymount, Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Ringsend ^[4] Opponents of one-off housing are sometimes compared to colonial British landlords from the era before Irish independence.

"There could have been 40 houses on one road in my area - and, of course, the British landlords evicted them. Now unfortunate people are trying to get planning permission in those areas today but there is a new British landlord, An Taisce, objecting to them. "

Johnny Brady TD, Chairman of the Joint Committe on Agriculture and Food ^[20]

Proponents and opponents

One-off housing development is broadly supported by the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, and by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív. Johnny Brady (born January 1948 is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician The Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government (Aire Comhshaoil Oidhreacht agus Rialtais Áitiúil is the senior minister at the Department of the Environment Dick Roche (Risteard de Róiste born 30 March 1947 is a senior Irish Fianna Fáil politician The Minister for Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Aire Gnóthaí Pobail Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta is the senior minister at the Department of Community Rural and Éamon Ó Cuív (born 23 June 1950 is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and is currently the Minister for Community Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs. ^[21] In 2005, the Irish government (a coalition between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats) introduced policy guidelines that detailed the circumstances under which one-off housing should be promoted. Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach shortened to Fianna Fáil ( is currently the largest Political party in the The Progressive Democrats (An Páirtí Daonlathach lit The Democratic Party) commonly called The PDs, are a Free market liberal party in ^[22] These guidelines were supported by Sinn Féin and Fine Gael (the largest opposition party). Sinn Féin () is a political party in Ireland. The current party led by Gerry Adams was formed following a split in January 1970 Fine Gael – The United Ireland Party, shortened to Fine Gael (ˌfina gail meaning Family of the Irish or Tribe of the Irish, is the second largest ^[23]

The Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Rural Dwellers Association also promote one-off housing. The Irish Farmers Association is a national organisation to represent the interests of all sectors of farming in the Republic of Ireland. ^[24]^[25]

An Taisce, an Irish conservation organisation, maintains a policy against one-off housing development. An Taisce ( Irish for The Treasury) also known as the National Trust for Ireland, was established in 1948 with a similar mission to ^[26] Frank McDonald, a journalist with The Irish Times coined the term 'Bungalow Blitz' in a series of articles condemning one-off housing in the 1980s. Frank McDonald is the Environment Editor of The Irish Times. Life He was born in 1950 and educated at Kelly's Private School Cabra Road St Vincent’s CBS Glasnevin The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet news paper launched in the late 1850s. This was a pun on the title of a popular book named 'Bungalow Bliss' by Jack Fitzsimons, that contained architectural plans for bungalows intended to be used by those building their own homes. ^[27] The Irish Green Party opposes one-off housing development. The Green Party (Comhaontas Glas lit Green Alliance) is a green Political party in Ireland. ^[28]

Circumstances under which one-off housing may be encouraged

Local authorities often allow one-off developments where they meet some of the following criteria:

The applicant intends to farm the surrounding land
The applicant's parents own the land in question and are farmers
The applicant commits not to sell the house for a number of years
The applicant was born in the local area
The local area is suffering from depopulation
The applicant intends to work in the local area and not use the house as a base to commute to a city. Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a State.

According to Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, 80% of applications for one-off housing are approved. ^[4]

References

A bungalow (બંગલો baṅglo, बंगला baṅglā) is a type of single-storey House that originated in India. Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a Farm. It is a type of Building or House which serves a Residential purpose in a Believed to be of Gaelic origin a townland is a term for a small geographical unit of land used in Ireland; the term was at one time also used in Scotland McMansion is a pejorative Neologism, coined by NY environmentalist Jay

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