Mattie McGrath criticises agencies for blocking housing delivery
Mattie McGrath spoke on amendments 1 to 15 about housing, planning and delivery, arguing that large state agencies and prescribed bodies are creating logjams that prevent homes being built. He opposed the Land Development Agency and criticised agencies such as Irish Water, the NRA/TII and a prescribed body he called 'Tashka', urging their removal or reform so people can build homes, particularly in rural areas.
Opposition to the Land Development Agency
Mattie McGrath said he was not in favour of the Land Development Agency, citing a history of poor experience with large agencies. He argued big bodies operate alone, create delay and bureaucracy, and questioned the need for another planning official and office when local decision-making is hampered.
Criticism of large state agencies and Irish Water
He invoked past problems with the NRA (now TII) and criticised Irish Water, saying centralised agencies have lost local knowledge about towns and infrastructure. He contrasted the large agencies with local volunteers and council workers who built group schemes by hand, arguing that local common sense achieved results faster than centralised bodies.
Local housing delivery experience
McGrath recounted his own experience on a voluntary housing board that built 17 houses in 15 months, while the county council took six years to build a comparable number. He blamed bad management, lack of proper training and a repetitive planning approval process that sees applications go up and down over months.
Attack on prescribed body 'Tashka' and court costs
He urged that the prescribed body he referred to as 'Tashka' be derailed, debunked and defunded, calling it a menace that delays rural building. He said the body takes cases to court using public money, blocks projects that already have planning and environmental licences, and cited a threatened period house and a proposed cheese plant in Kilkenny as examples of projects hindered for ideological reasons.
Zoning and rural development obstacles
McGrath highlighted zoning changes as another obstacle, citing a Clare town area plan where zoned land fell from 60 hectares to 10, affecting planned small clusters, nursing home schemes and retirement developments. He called for removing regulatory logjams so people can build their own houses within reasonable guidelines.
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I too am delighted to be able to talk to these amendments, 1 to 15, and look, there's an ideological argument here about parties on the left and parties on the right, but the sad part about it is there's a logjam in the whole delivering of housing, and many parties, and left parties, the Labour Party were in government, and we had Deputy Kelly, Minister, he promised more houses, and I thought he wouldn't build a hen house to be better, to Carrick and Shure, and he didn't at the time. But we need to, we need to get real here, because I'm not in favour of the Land Development Agency, because I have had a very, we have had a very bad experience of these big agencies, with the NRA, for instance, now they have the TII, and if you want to cut a briar, and at least pick a BlackBerry, away from a sign, you have to get permission, and you just can't do it, they're alone to themselves, I said it many times when Fred Barry was there, that we decommissioned the IRA, and we couldn't decommission the NRA, and now we have got TII, and it's, it's just impossible, we didn't have the new, the planning regulators out, why do we need him? Another guy, or man, a lot of experience in planning, yes, and he has an office in Dublin, I'm sure, and maybe a regional one as well, with glass plates on the door, and fancy furniture, and a team around him, and he's an idea that I won't, we won't meet him, our group, the rule in the pins won't meet him, he's an idea where he wants to make himself feel relevant, and look, with all these, big is not powerful, with Irish water, and the good men and women, that did group schemes, and the council workers, that dug schemes with picks and shovels, I remember going myself to help them out, as a young man with a JCB, and they thought this thing was an alien thing, they were doing it with picks and shovels, and did it, and sweated blood to do it, and now we have Irish water, and they don't even know where the towns are, not to mind to say where the, where the, where the, where the, where the, where the pipes are. Now, Minister, we have to get rid of the logjams, look, the, the, the, the regulations, and I walked with you in opposition, Minister, I have, some faith in you, definitely, but, it's not happening, I mean, we have all these agencies, and, to get a development, and I was involved in the Irish council social housing for, maybe 10 years, I was a board member, but I'm also, I was also, I was also chair of a voluntary housing scheme, we built 14 and 3, 17 houses, lovely team of volunteers, and we built it, and the county council, the same field, built, it took them six years to build, at the same amount of houses, we built them 15 months, we were told it couldn't be done, there wasn't a, there wasn't a, there wasn't a professional person among us, with the hiring and the expertise, but we had common sense, and the council houses have 11 by 12 or 13 steps up to them, scandalous, in the same field, and we don't have a step, we're flat complex, so, lots of issues, bad management, not proper training, but I've seen our officials in the council, reports go up in applications to build houses, comes back down, six months later up again, six months later down again, going on, merry-go-round, seven different, offices around the country, had to go to, can I talk then about planning, and rezoning, and this, you're talking about having land here, having land banks, and this is all fine for the city, maybe, but it's not for the rural areas, you won't allow people, they don't want to build their own houses in rural Ireland, didn't we have on Tashka, prescribed body, will you not please derail them, debunk them, defund them, because they have outlived their uselessness, and they're a hindrance to people building houses now, we had a meeting with them, and we want a footnick limited to an hour, and it was another hour group, waiting for ages, and we're waiting for a follow-up meeting, and we can't get it. They are just a menace, a menace, I have a house in Lutcrofty, a house in a hotel, I spoke to the Minister O'Gorman this evening about that, no, no, Minister McKinney, Green Minister, I keep forgetting, Malcolm Noonan, it's been raped and plundered, a wonderful period house, and we can't, and on Tashka don't even want to know about it, yet they want to stop people building houses in rural areas, they want to stop a wonderful plant, cheese plant being built in Kilkenny, just an ideological reason, they've got planning, they've got the EPA emissions license, they've got the board, but on Tashka, are taken to the court, with taxpayers' money, this wouldn't happen, the taxpayers are funding to the children in the 6 million a year, they say, oh, we don't use that money for courts, we get all our barristers of work pro bono, I don't know many barristers of work pro bono, I haven't met on them anyway, so I doubt if they do either, take cases of the high court, this is a racket, and it's a rotten sinking racket, and it should be stopped, and these people must be removed from the equation, and let people build their own houses, within reasonable guidelines. Right, zoning, disease zoning, then the same as regulator, Clare Town area plan was just passed there some months ago, and residents fought against it in Mountain View Drive, and now they were told that we went from 60 hectares of zone land down to 10. And here, Pastor, the councillors have come along, and I want social houses, I want councillors with at least as long as your arm in Tipperary, three and a half thousand, and they came along last week, I had been trying with different farmers and landowners to get planning permission for small developments, a cluster of houses, small developments, a nursing home scheme, retirement village, no, nothing could happen, it was a mountain road, and Mountain View Drive had a new road. And now, that was in a plan, in a development plan, now that's removed. And now the councillors have come up, and they're going out now to the Part 8, to say that they want to build 43 houses, in plain pictures, in a green area, in a housing state that's already densely populated. Who is making these decisions? This is, and there's a public meeting tomorrow night, which I must attend, and I've been invited to, the people are up in arms, they've made submissions to keep this green area, and now the councillors are going to build it on it. And after this, he's owning 60, or 50 hectares, of the rest of the town. Port Panada, then. A councillor, I have a problem now with mass, especially with 5G, and there's one in New England and one in Gurtin-Nahu at the moment, planning's in. 120 objections in Gurtin-Nahu, I think, and 86 in New England. Building on top of a person's home, there's already an aircon mass, where the family, the late Jack Maloney, gave the side-free charge, the same happened in Gurtin-Nahu, to air at the time, or forerunners posing telegraphs, to get their phone eyes into people. And they were great people. Now they have put up poles with masks on them, and now they're looking for 25 and 30 metre high to put all the antennae they like on them. And the councillor would probably refuse this, and they've refused manding them around the country. But I'm told by activists that 80% of them are being overturned by Burtin-Panada. Do they care about people's health? Do they care about the visual intrusion? Do they care about the tidy towns and the aesthetics? The one in New England is near four listed properties. Again, I have contacted Antarctica. Remember, these planning commissioners are statually bound, required to be sent to Antarctica. Oh, yeah, thanks for making us aware of it. They were told about it. They were written there. They're not interested in people's health or people's livelihoods or small villages or communities, but they are interested in the nice, dandy stuff and stopping factories and becoming, and having all the ecology meetings and climate change meetings. This is scandalous, like I already. And, Minister, I wish you well, but it's not going to happen. You should take out all these logjams. Get rid of them. Because if you want to come out on the regional road, you have to deal with the TII. I told you we decommissioned, and Manson, late Father Alex Reid, and Bertie Heller, and others decommissioned diary, and we're left with the NRA now to TII. Just self-empowered people who are answerable to no one. Not a councillor in this house, to the county councillors, to anyone, and by hell, you don't question them. They're above that. They're like the nephits that we have now. They're untouchable. Thank you, Dr. McGrath. We've really undermined our democracy and vested power on these people, and they shouldn't have it. Great.
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