Danny Healy-Rae: Kerry youth forced to emigrate over housing crisis

Thank you very much. Let's call the minister. I'm glad to get the opportunity to raise with you today the matter of young fellows, boys and girls, leaving our shores, going to Australia, simply because they can't buy or build a house in this country, no matter how good a job they have. I attended such an event in Varaduv, in East Kerry, a couple of weeks ago, where 10 local youngsters are at the party or shores and will be gone. Some of them have already gone and the rest of them will be gone before Christmas. In other words, they won't be sitting at their parents' table for their Christmas dinner this year. I'm hot about that. They have been educated to the highest standards. They have persevered long days and nights in colleges, whether it is Cork or Galway or Dublin or Limerick or wherever, highly educated and their parents helped them financially to put them through school. But here they're cut now because they can't come up to the point. They feel these are 25 to 32-year-olds. They can't feel that they can't ever get to the point where they can purchase a house or build a house. And houses in Kilarny, in or around Kilarny, are making 450 to 650,000 euros. That's too much for them and they won't get a mortgage for it and that's why they're departing. On the other side of it, they can't get planning permission because it carries unusual that they'd have about 100 kilometers of national primary and national secondary routes and are not allowed to come out of your own land in the first place because of those restrictions that are applied to those routes. National secondary, national, we've raised it several times. National secondary, national, we've raised it several times. The other thing is, Minister, this urban-generated rule, strict urban-generated pressure, a rule put upon us by the planning regulator, which was intended to prevent people coming out in the country from towns to build a house for themselves. But it's not only stopping them, it's stopping the people who are local to the site. Maybe a site on to their parents' house. I'm not talking about farmers, sons, or daughters. They are getting permission. But their neighbors next door are not getting permission. All around East Kerry, because it's in the hinterland of Kilarny, all around Mid Kerry, because it's in the hinterland of Kilarny and Kinmere. That's what's happening. They would build their own houses if they would get planning permission. Minister, the other matter is, there's a lot of schemes out there. Affordable housing, it's not in Kerry. We never had an affordable scheme in Kerry. And there's the other one, cost rental scheme. We don't have that in Kerry. We're asking for fair play here and the things that are addressed there, the national roads issue and the restriction. We've been raised several times here and I'm asking what are we going to do about it. Minister. Deputy, thanks very much for your question. I'm conscious that there are very many young people that emigrate from Ireland and go to Australia. That happened many years ago as well as it's happening now. I'm sure, as you say, many of them are going in terms of trying to get accommodation. But can I tell them, when they get to Australia, they'll find that they have a similar housing issue in Australia as well. Accommodation costs and the price of housing in Australia is exceptionally high too. The good news, however, though, Deputy, is that people are returning. People may go to Australia from Ireland for a number of years. They go there to train in terms of the work that they do. They go there for enjoyment. But in general, a lot of them come back. And we've seen that in terms of the CSO statistics that you saw recently. Although there's many thousands that leave Ireland each year, we have similar amounts coming back having spent a number of years away. Part of the reason for that is because they enjoy the quality of life in Ireland. I'm conscious about the fact that government has tried to introduce very many measures to facilitate the young people you're talking about, Deputy. And you spoke about cost rental and you spoke about affordable housing. But also there's another great measure introduced by the government that you should tell your constituents about. And that's the Help to Buy scheme. And we know that the Help to Buy is specifically designed to encourage people who believe that a home may be out of their reach. It helps them to get through that extra that's required in order to ensure that they can gain access to the property ladder. And we know from the latest available data, which was given on 30 May 2025, that the Help to Buy scheme has supported more than 56,000 first-time buyer individuals or couples to buy their own home. And it gives a refund on income tax and dirt paid in the state over the previous four years, subject to certain limits. So I'd ask you, Deputy, to inform people who are concerned about the fact that they may not be able to purchase accommodation to consider the Help to Buy scheme. I also want you to be aware that 5,400 single one-off houses were approved for planning permission in 2024. So I'm conscious that the demands on the housing system are significant and severe, but the supply is increasing as time progresses, Deputy. You also mentioned the issue about the planning regulator and planning permission. We need to ensure that local authorities are giving out planning permission and that they are zoning land. We want to ensure that there is enough zoned land available so that houses can be built. We're in the middle of a time where we need to build housing accommodation as promptly as possible. The planning regulator has a role to play in that. And as the Taoiseach has stated previously, local authorities have a very significant role to ensure that adequate and sufficient land is rezoned so that people can build homes and live in the area from where they came. Mr. Minister, look, the people I'm talking about do know about the Help to Buy scheme. Many of them won't qualify. You're talking about zone land. We have zone land in Kinmear. There's two Johnny Healy-Ray raised it just last week. There's two applications before Kerry County Council gone out for further information. The answer, what's in question is, the developers are supposed to provide their own water. And that's what they've been asked. Will they provide their own water? Because the water is not adequate in Kinmear. And a scheme of houses haven't been built by any private individual in Kinmear with the last 20 years. Because of the treatment plant. 40 million has been spent in that. But now we have no water. And clearly Kerry County Council tried to take water out of the Banan River 10 years ago. And it went to the High Court. It went to the European Court of Appeal. And they lost it. They tried to take water out of the river in Banan. There's been 3 million in that. We still have no water in Kinmear. And we're surrounded by lakes all around it. And there's springs and everything. I'm asking that he get after this game. I'm also asking the minister to put, he's doing a lot of things. But he must put the local authority back building houses again. They're not building any houses. And the places like Guinea Villa, Cora, Scotland, Dene, and all them local parishes. And I'm asking to increase the cap that prevents people to get here on the housing list from 37,000 up to 60,000. People are going away and not doing enough. And I'm asking people to do things. And ask the local authority to build rural cottages on land owned by family members. Because they're only building one a year at a minute. That's not enough. Deputy Healy Ray, resume your seat. Thanks.