Mattie McGrath criticises planning bodies over rural zoning
Mattie McGrath criticised the MPF review and urged that power be returned to councillors to make local plans, arguing national bodies have overruled rural communities. He singled out the Office of Planning Regulator and Transport Infrastructure Ireland and described specific local planning decisions he says were mishandled.
Mattie McGrath welcomed some proposed changes in the MPF review but said the document must restore power to councillors. He argued the overriding powers of ISCAEN, the Office of Planning Regulator and Transport Infrastructure Ireland have been dictating development in rural constituencies and must be reined in.
He cited the Care Local Area Plan as a prime example of the failings of the NPF and the heavy-handed nature of the Office of Planning Regulator. McGrath described a 2021 review of zoning for his daughter Maureen on the council that reduced residential zoning from 50 acres to 10 hectares, ignored council consents and was later acknowledged as a mistake.
McGrath described cases of rural farmers unable to build on their own land, naming two examples on the N24 between Cairn and Tiberi and on the N74 on the way to Kilkenny. He said planners cited tertiary sector considerations but that forcing farmers to live away from their farms and commute for work is illogical and harmful to rural livelihoods.
He criticised multiple agencies and their leadership as producing confusion rather than solutions, noting CEOs and directors with "brass plates" who are doing nothing. McGrath warned that while some progress on housing and infrastructure has started, many villages and towns remain without access or funding and he urged a review of past decisions, including a reference to 2014 and the Centre for Virus Water.
MPF review and local councillor powers
Mattie McGrath welcomed some proposed changes in the MPF review but said the document must restore power to councillors. He argued the overriding powers of ISCAEN, the Office of Planning Regulator and Transport Infrastructure Ireland have been dictating development in rural constituencies and must be reined in.
Care Local Area Plan rezoning example
He cited the Care Local Area Plan as a prime example of the failings of the NPF and the heavy-handed nature of the Office of Planning Regulator. McGrath described a 2021 review of zoning for his daughter Maureen on the council that reduced residential zoning from 50 acres to 10 hectares, ignored council consents and was later acknowledged as a mistake.
Rural farmers denied building on family land
McGrath described cases of rural farmers unable to build on their own land, naming two examples on the N24 between Cairn and Tiberi and on the N74 on the way to Kilkenny. He said planners cited tertiary sector considerations but that forcing farmers to live away from their farms and commute for work is illogical and harmful to rural livelihoods.
Critique of national agencies and infrastructure impacts
He criticised multiple agencies and their leadership as producing confusion rather than solutions, noting CEOs and directors with "brass plates" who are doing nothing. McGrath warned that while some progress on housing and infrastructure has started, many villages and towns remain without access or funding and he urged a review of past decisions, including a reference to 2014 and the Centre for Virus Water.
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Transcript
Minister, I want to wish you well on your new position. I welcome some of the proposed changes in the MPF review. Ultimately, the document must restore power to councillors to form their own plans and address the overriding powers of ISCAEN, the Office of Planning Regulator and Transport Infrastructure Ireland in dictating development of rural constituencies. When I was at Corleury in my council, we had done this, we had NRA, and as I often said about them, I thought we decommissioned them, but apparently they are still there. But this is the problem with this. A typical example of the Care Local Area Plan is a prime example of the failings of the NPF and the heavy-handed nature of the Office of Planning Regulator. The plan that was reviewed in 2021 for my daughter Maureen on the council, that they sought to reduce the quantum of residential zoned from 50 acres to just 10 hectares. It ignored consents from the councils and anybody else at the time. It was the highest stupidity. Now they are there and they want the councils, they admit their mistake, to rezone the land again. Anybody would know reducing from 50 down to 10 was way too much, but they just wouldn't listen, they were obstinate. I have cases as well of planning on rural farmers, two in particular, one on the N24 between Cairn and Tiberi and one on the N74 on the way to Kilkenny, where they're living in the farms with their families. And they won't be allowed, even in their own land they're farming, to build a house on their own land. They're saying because they have more ternary sector. In actual fact, the opposite is the case. If they have to build elsewhere in a town or someplace else, they have to go to and from the farm to do their work. So it's total nonsense. And they won't listen. So these bodies, and we have Maureen, we have all these agencies, and they have CEOs, and they have directors, and they have brass plates on the walls, and they're doing nothing, only confusing. And we can't go on the way they're going, because they've started progress on housing, they've started progress on infrastructure with each gear, and how many villages in Tiberi have no access to it, and towns that are full up, and no funding, they have no power. So we must go back and look at what happened here in 2014 with the Centre for Virus Water. Thank you. Stay in tune.