Danny Healy-Rae Urges Action on Rural Planning and Housing Caps

Thank you very, Mr. Uncle. I'm glad to get a chance to mention a few things here this evening because housing, as we all know, is so important and there's so much talk about and there's so many people not being able to be housed. And if you have, I understand it, this is a bill to borrow more money to help and to build more houses and to provide more housing and if that's the case, I do welcome that because, as I've stated here in recent weeks, there are many people leaving our shores here because when they come to the age of 25 to 32, they realise that they can't. They can't buy or build a house for themselves, Minister. And they're at the stage when they have to decide. Going forward, when they were young, maybe they were younger than that, they were happy, care and free and when they intend to settle down, the thing that they need the most is a house, Minister. And I feel the budget, while it addressed a lot of things, it didn't help the working class people that are trying to come up to the mark of buying or building a house. We have many things that's provincial. First of all, I think that people that want to build a house for themselves, they should be applauded and helped everywhere in the world. But we're proving to you, Minister, I've been highlighted before, we're planning a stipulation and in Kerry, there's actually two things, preventing a lot of people of building houses. And one is the urban-generated pressure clause that is to stop people from coming out of a town or an urban setting and building out the country. But that same clause is affecting the people that never went into town, that are outside and want to build a house near their fathers and mothers, not farmers, sons or daughters. They are being catered for. Buying lars, they're being seen after for. But these category of people could be next door to many of those. And they just have a site and they can buy a site very local to them. They are being prevented. I've asked the Taoiseach, I've asked the Tarnished, I've asked y'all to address that and do something about it because it is very unfair. They're asking nothing of nobody, only permission, planning permission. And I feel that we should do our best to help those. In Kerry as well, we have over 100 kilometres of national primary roads, secondary and primary roads. And on those roads, you can't build a new house and exit onto those roads. That's a stipulation that's there since 2012, imagine, that's 13 years. Many people have fell by the wayside when they couldn't get that permission to come out. An existing entrance, you see. So I'm asking you to deal with that. And then others that want to get on the housing list or when they see they can't build a house or buy a house or build a house, there's a cap of $37,000 on a couple. And they're not, they're not, they can't get on the housing list. I actually have a man and wife with 10 children now and they're failing to turn into a house because he's over the threshold to get on the housing list. He can't get any housing support at all. I've asked the minister for housing to deal with that. And if he has any discretion or any way of allowing a man and his wife with 10 children, it is not often that we hear of that size of a family now. But they have to be applauded. They've brought, they've reared them so far. And the house that they have is, they have to hand it up. The man wants to put his own son into the house and he needs the house back. And it was to be vacated by the end of September, but you've got an extra couple of months now and that's all, minister. So you have that and that cap is totally wrong. $37,000 in the north. It should be somewhere like $57,000 or $60,000. To be fair, in today's world and for what it costs to build a house and for what rents are costing and carry. I mean, you're talking about, in the surrounds of Killarney, you're talking about $1,600 to $2,400 a month for a house. And that's serious money. And people do need help to try to do the basic thing, to keep a roof over their heads. And I'm asking you to look at that threshold because, look, and there's a few other things that we need. When the country was going good enough, going back maybe 20, 30 years ago, when the local authorities were building houses, they bought sites in different places like Guinea Village. I'm calling for that now. For Guinea Village, the likes of Korra, the likes of Brasner, all these places. To buy a site where the council could come along every couple of years and build four or five or ten houses. That's not happening at all, no. Even though I have heard the saying that he's allocated money to the local authorities. To buy money to build houses. It's not happening, Minister. And I'm asking you to get out of the local authorities. What happened then, when people got a house, a rural cottage, the rural cottages and being built it all now. And the first thing, when the person was so, they were so glad to get the council to build the house for them on their own side, when they got their legs under them at all, they wanted, the first thing they wanted to do was to purchase the house back so that they'd be owners of the house. That's not allowed at all, no. Any house that's built since 2016 by our local authority in Kerry, whether it is a rural cottage or whether it is inside the house estate, it can't be purchased if it is built after 2016. People do have a need and a want. It's something that we pride in ourselves going back to generations that we would own our own house. I'm asking you to look at that. Because I can't understand the logic of that. When he got your money back for the house that he built, and that money went forward again to build more houses or to what it was used for in Kerry for a long time was dealing with the voids. So there was no delay in the voids being brought back into use. And that stopped, Minister. I'm asking you to look at that, please, because it's very important. And we were going well when we were able to do things like that. I don't see. That's not happening now. And people do have a need. And they were happy in the intervening time to live and rent in the council house. But their ambition was to keep it well and to eventually own it when they could. And that was always their ambition. I'm asking you to please look at that, because it's very important. And if there is extra money now, you should look at new ways. And it's mostly the voluntary housing bodies are either buying up the states that are being built, or they're building these estates, and they can never be purchased. People don't understand that. And that's not what everyone wants. Some people are happy to rent, but most of the people that I know and have known in the past, they want to eventually be able to buy out their house, and that's not allowable with the rules that we have now. I'm asking you to get the local authorities building, because they did it very effectively in the past. And they spread the people out around in the different parishes, places like Scott the Dain. We don't even have a treatment plan there. Cor, we don't have a treatment plan. My van, I can't build any more houses there because, and it's very near Tralee, because the treatment system ended up to standard. And I hear that even more money got, and we need, we are in the process of getting it. I'm asking you to do those things. Also, in Kinmeier, there was no estate bill for a private estate bill in 20 years. Imagine that. We were held up because of the sewer as a treatment plant. 40 million euros have been spent now, but there's two current housing applications. One for, the total amount is 169 houses. They're being refused because there isn't enough water in Kinmeier. Even though we're surrounded by water, and it's raining most of the time down our way, but even though, and we're surrounded by lakes and everything, we don't have adequate water now for new estates. I'm asking you to address this, and you have given more money and more ammunition to Irish water in recent times. I'm asking you to deal with this urgently, because people are leaving Kinmeier. They're leaving Kilgarven and Sneem because they can't buy a house anywhere. I'm asking you to deal with this urgently. They've gone out for further information. I'm asking you to get involved as a unit, as a government, the T-shirt, whoever the case, the housing minister. Get down there and get that subject open. Thank you. Thank you.