Danny Healy-Rae: Public Land Must Be 100% for Social Housing
Danny Healy-Rae spoke on 30 June 2021 about housing and local development policy, arguing that publicly owned land should be used entirely for social housing and warning that a land development agency could lack accountability. He raised concerns about sewerage deficits in Kerry, planning and zoning barriers, rising building costs, timber shortages and the struggles of small builders.
Public land and social housing
The deputy insisted publicly owned land should be 100% for social housing, arguing each public-site development should remain publicly owned to provide homes to rent, affordable houses to sell and sites for qualifying people who wish to build for themselves. He criticised proposals to parcel public land into private or 'more affordable' developments.
Accountability concerns about a land development agency
He warned that a land development agency could be "accountable to nobody" and said that local authorities must retain control of public sites. He pressed for safeguards and local oversight rather than removal of accountability.
Local example - Killarney and St. Finans
He highlighted the St. Finans site in Killarney, saying he has sought its transfer from the HSE back to Kerry County Council so local authority housing can be built there. He described the site as valuable and in need of local-authority-led housing development.
Sewerage, planning and zoning constraints
He set out widespread sewerage problems across Kerry, noting dozens of settlements lack treatment plants which prevents building even when planning permission is granted. He criticised zoning and de-zoning practices that deny people the right to live in their own areas and called for investment in treatment facilities.
Builders, timber shortages and rising costs
He described small builders as under severe pressure from rising material and timber costs, long waits for supplies, levies, VAT and limited bank lending. He warned that the removal of stage payments forces builders to carry full costs to completion and risks small firms exiting the market.
Support for one-off houses and forestry policy
He criticised regulatory designations that block one-off houses and said people building homes for themselves should be supported. He also raised concerns about difficulties obtaining felling licences, arguing domestic forestry should supply timber rather than relying on imports.
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I'm glad to get an opportunity to talk on this very important topic and I know that many members here have a lot of talking and it's time for action now and I do appreciate, Minister, that you are doing your best in the position that you now hold and have confidence that we will continue to try to do that. I suppose we do disagree about certain things. I'm worried that down the line that this will arouse polls of elected members and indeed local authorities and I'm also very worried that maybe that this land development agency that would be accountable to nobody, that there'd be no accountability. I honestly believe that publicly owned land should be 100% for social housing and I can't understand how parcel making these developments maybe private and more affordable and social. That won't work. Each development on public lands should be publicly owned and build houses to rent them, build affordable houses to sell them, yes, and indeed if possible sell sites to couples or people that want to build a house for themselves. If they qualify for social housing, if they qualify for social housing, they should qualify to be allowed by a site in that regard. I'd be very worried. I'd be very worried if publicly owned lands that we have, say, in Killarney, like St. Finans, that site, very valuable site, that I am striving for many years now to ensure that that land is transferred back by the HSE to Kerry County Council from where it came from in the first place and that local authority houses would be built there. We need them in Killarney. In Killarney. Builders and developers, indeed, are doing a great job where they can, but they're up against it at the present time because with costs of materials and the cost of timber especially, you look for timber for a house in Kerry at the present time, there's a six-week wait and they won't tell you what the timber is going to cost until they arrive with it. And at the same time, we can't fell our forest trees. Here, no one can get a felling licence, yet in Germany and other places, there's no such thing as a felling licence. Only, it's well known that when we plant a forestry, it has to be cut down when it is ripe and available, and now we're importing timber. The regulator that we have is against one-off houses, people that are trying to build houses themselves, and those people should be supported in every kind of way. There are several designations preventing them from building at the present time. It's hard to get planning, very hard in many parts of our county, and that's not right because people, all they want is to put a roof over their heads and make a home for themselves, and they should get every assistance, indeed, from also elected members, and from the department, from the minister, from the government, and from the local authorities. They're finding it very hard at the present time, minister. We have a problem. We're taught here, look, Muni is not an object, and that houses will be built, and that there's no problem. Yet we have massive problems with sewerage, minister, and no facilities. 32 settlements, imagine, in Kerry, have no sewerage facility. 17 towns and villages are waiting for extinctions. You can't build in the town of Kinmer, you can get planning permission, but until the treatment plan is extended, you can't build that. Zoning and designations, and zoning and de-zoning, and that's what's happening in Kerry at the present time. The local authority members are told they can de-zone, they can increase zoning, but you must de-zone places like Ratmore and outside of that. That's not fair, minister, and that's not right because people want to live in their own areas, and they're being denied that right by two things, by zoning designations, and by the non-existent facilities. Non-existent sewerage facilities. Places like Beaufort, a massive village that could expand, but no treatment plant. In fact, there are two houses that are absolutely in a terrible state. The local authority has to draw the sewerage out of it every week, out of them every week, into the Killarney treatment plant. Things like that are happening in Cora. No treatment plant at all in Scotty Glen. No treatment plant in SD. All those places. And they are honest, good, hardworking people, and they deserve to be able to put a roof over their heads. It's just not right, minister, and I'm appealing to deal with that. If you say money is not a problem, we need to bring up. It may not be nice to be talking about sewerage inside here in places like this, but if you don't have proper facilities, you can't have homes, and it's very important that we do so. And then there's probably small builders and developers are finding it very difficult to continue because levies and regulations and VAT and all those things, and then they have to carry the cost. And the banks are very hard to get money off of. This is the one thing that you have to look at, minister. They have to carry the cost to the very end because there's no stage payments allowed anymore. And there's many small builders and developers. They are going out of the business. They will have to go out of it because they can't continue. If you have no money, you have no phone, and that's the story with small developers and builders now. They can't afford to carry the full cost, and the costs are going up all the time, chairman, and that's what's happening. And we have to realize that we have to do something to help those people. Now, let's say a few questions. How did you get me to send right away what's up and down in a reminder? I did not speak through 15 minutes long as well. All my zarны to carry the daily spending and shuts the wronghumane because the buy heir, in fact revenues for short-term destiny, let us know about this. Now I'm good for someone to pray and pick this up out into the car in that aper, and I'm ready to go out there. In the car, I see. How does this be valuable in the car in that wine? You'll help me to stop. And I understand that a lot right now.
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