The man was denied planning permission to build a home on land his family had owned for generations.

Irish musician Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich built a home on the back of a trailer and drove it onto his land in the Dingle Peninsula, following a 15 year battle for planning with Kerry County Council. A new film The Man with the Moving House, which airs on RTÉ One tonight follows Ó Beaglaoich's journey as he battles planning laws and faces homelessness. Speaking on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk this morning, Ó Beaglaoich said his story highlights a lack of accountability at local authority level in Kerry. He said:

It’s the system. You have people in place there that have no accountability. They have ultimate power and ultimate power corrupts absolutely. For me, once you step over the threshold of Kerry County Council Planning, you say goodbye to democracy. You have as much chance of democracy in Red Square. 

Ó Beaglaoich also spoke of how planning laws that aim to encourage building homes in towns and villages rather than rural areas are ‘killing the countryside.’

The planning is not taking heritage into account. There’s a plan to kill the countryside. By killing the countryside in our case, you’re killing the Irish language. By killing the countryside, you’re killing our sports. You’re killing our music, our song, our dance and our storytelling. You’re killing our viable communities and you’re also killing tourism because they are the very things that tourists come to Ireland to see. They’re definitely not coming for the weather.

Newstalk reports that Kerry County Council threatened Ó Beaglaoich with a fine of over €12m and two years in jail when they learned about his passive house, which costs just €150 to heat through the winter. He said that the council threats "did frighten him, but he kept his nerve and refused to move his house". The Man with the Moving House airs on RTÉ One at 10.15pm tonight (Aug 25th). READ NEXT: Cost of living crisis has led to 'cash-candid dating' in Ireland