It is an objective of the Plan for Social Housing to mitigate the extent and the effects of undue social segregation in housing. Housing authorities have been requested to have regard to this objective in planning their own housing programmes and other activities in the social housing area. However, this would not preclude the provision of individual housing schemes to cater for a particular category of need such as the elderly, the homeless, etc. Indeed, the provision of such schemes on a moderate scale in certain areas could contribute to the promotion of the objective of ensuring balanced communities. In the case of a voluntary housing scheme, a local community has the right to make objections on planning grounds to the planning authority when notice of the planning application is given and, if they are aggrieved by the decision of the planning authority, to appeal against that decision to An Bord Pleanála. More generally, of course, it is open to any group to make representations to a housing authority as to how they regard a particular proposal in the context of the objective I have referred to.
