Danny Healy-Rae urges extension for rural one-off housing permissions
Danny Healy-Rae spoke in the Dáil on 1 Dec 2021 about extensions to planning permissions for rural one-off housing, urging the minister to restore the five-year extension for people delayed by Covid and rising costs. He said current rules and recent Board Planala decisions are preventing ordinary rural people from building homes.
Call for extension on rural planning permissions
He told the minister that the previous five-year extension for planning applications in rural areas is being ruled out and asked for it to be reinstated. Many applicants received planning permission but have seen their time run out because they could not build during the pandemic or obtain loans.
Impact of Covid, costs and contractor scarcity
He outlined practical barriers to starting builds now - sharply higher materials costs, a shortage of contractors and difficulty securing loans after periods of low or no work during the pandemic. He warned these factors will stop many people from being able to build for the foreseeable future.
Appeals to Board Planala and vexatious objections
He raised serious concern that appeals to Board Planala are overturning local planner decisions, saying about 90% of appealed decisions are being refused even when the inspector recommends upholding permission. He described many of the objectors as vexatious and warned that forcing people back through this process will further prevent homebuilding.
Distinction between urban sites and rural one-off houses
He acknowledged the government focus on larger urban developments but argued the rural scenario is different - many applicants seek a single home to raise a family and keep local schools and communities viable. He said urban planning behaviours such as land-banking do not apply to these rural applicants.
Critique of zoning and proposal for merit-based planning
He criticised zoning that increases land value for owners who do not intend to sell and proposed a merit-based approach where any applicant could apply for planning permission regardless of zoning. He said decisions should be made on the merits of each case to address rural housing needs.
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I appreciate what you are trying to do here in Dublin in relation to housing and the urgency that he has and the amount of people that are looking for housing and I know that he has a very real problem and that is your number one consideration. to deal with that and to get the numbers down. But I raised something here in the Dáil with the Taoiseach maybe a week or two ago and I am grateful for your response but it is not the response that I want. because what has happened now, here before we always had an extension of time of another five years to a planning application in rural areas for one-off housing. and that is being denied now that he is ruling that out. But I am asking you to reconsider because a lot of people got planning permission and their time is running out because they weren't able to build during the Corona. there was no Coronavirus. They weren't able to get loans for one reason or another. Work one grade and they weren't able to get going. and now they are in another conundrum because material has gone so expensive that for the foreseeable future many of these won't be able to get going or to start building their houses. there is also scarcity of contractors and there is also scarcity of contractors and there are a lot of different problems. and you know, maybe you don't know Minister, there is an awful problem in getting planning in rural Ireland for a one-off house. and you get over all the hurdles and further information is sought and further information is satisfied and the planners duly grant. and what happens then? It is appealed to Board Planala. and the record is now that 90% of the decisions that are appealed to Board Planala are being refused. and they have been refused, even though the inspector comes down and gives his view that the permission should be upheld. Lo and behold, what did the Board do, the rest of them that were never done in Kerry? they refused the permission. and many of these people that appealed these objections, the most of them are vexatious. so what we are going to do now, for the people that have planning permission, put them through that rigmarole again. and you see, I appreciate that you want to get people here in Dublin or big sites going, but this is affecting the ordinary person in rural Ireland that basically wants to put a roof over their head. They will only be doing this once in their lifetimes. I understand what is happening here in Dublin. It is a different scenario. People get planning permission on a site and they hold it for so long, and when they see the time is ripe, they sell it up again. and the next owner does something else with the planning and maybe increases the density or whatever, and makes it more valuable, and they are holding the thing up. I appreciate that, Minister. but the scenario that I am outlining to you is totally and absolutely different, and I am asking you to change that. Surely it must be affecting deputies in other rural counties like Claire. Sure, I understand that he must have had the five-year extension as well. So, I am asking you to look at that again, Minister, because it is hurting people, and what it is going to do is stop people from building homes, and I know that is what you want, is people to build homes. This is actually hurting and stopping, will stop people, because they cannot get going right now, they cannot get loans, they cannot meet the new exorbitant building costs at the present time, and they are trying to get on their feet, because they have not been working for a couple of years, and there are many other little reasons like that. There are big reasons for the people that have held up, because they would not have start planning permission in the first place. This is for themselves. It is not sites for sale or anything like that. to sites to put a roof over their own heads, and in the case of young couples, to rear their families, and maybe keep the local schools going, because numbers are going down in rural areas. In places like Shron, that I represent, and the people that I adore there, they need people to build houses around their schools. There are several other places. And then there are other issues. The local authority, from time to time, has zoned land around towns and villages. The zoned places belong to farmers and landowners, that have no notion in the world of ever selling their farms, selling their farms and building housing them. And it makes a place, it is zoned, it makes it more valuable, and they pay more stamp duty in it. And that has to be looked at as well. You can't force these kind of people to build houses on land that they never wanted to sell in the first place. And look, Minister, I will say one thing. What I honestly believe, even in relation to the land here in Dublin, there shouldn't be any such thing as zoning. Only let every applicant apply for planning permission, and let the planning permission be decided on the merits of the place involved. All this wasting time of zoning land, and all the time that that takes, let applicants, whether the land is zoned or not, let them apply for planning permission, and let every case be decided on its own merits. I believe that is the real way of building houses. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
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