Mattie McGrath: Urges Action on Rogue Developers and Housing Crisis

Good morning, good, I too am delighted to get this opportunity to speak here tonight and I want to, iso my co-goadagust on go, Harry, Minister O'Brien, the Minister and indeed the Minister of Heritage, Deputy Minister Noonan from Kilkenny, South East near myself, wish you all the best but just to tell you as well, I worked with you Deputy O'Brien in the Housing Committee and some people have criticised me for my attendance at the Housing Committee but the Housing Committee, if words and talk and paper could build houses, there'll be no one homeless in this country and that's my experience of it and I got pure frustrated with it so we need real action and I know that Fianna Fáil and Partey, you remember I came from, my family was the founding members of it and I know they always had a history of building houses and built houses, especially local authority houses and they're spaces, so I hope that you have the say in this government, you have the Housing Minister and I wish you well of that and I know you're capable to get out and build ordinary local authority houses for ordinary people and you know build schemes like you all they always did, they were built in the 40s and the 50s, the 60s, 70s, 80s, the 90s, they were built, you know I mean people travelled in the backs of lorries and they had no equipment, when they had little foundations by hand, they built them and now we have all the cranes and equipment and earth moving machinery and we just can't build them. Planning is a disaster and I hope Minister Noonan that you won't make it worse, I hope Minister Noonan are getting out and many, many other issues. Some of your members are just top class at it and serial objectives and we don't need those. We obviously have to have balance and we have to have good planning laws and we don't have them and Deputy Collins Ministers and Deputy Annie Henry Ray who's here is always talking about the rural cottage, rural house. Council always built those and the amount of homes. Now you're not building them. We, if we, as I said, if to talk, Deputy Kelly was in it for years, several, they're more housing ministers than I had hot dinners but we can't build the houses. Minister, planning has a huge role to play and Minister I spoke to you this evening about a planning situation in my own town in Cair and Tipperary. A lovely family, a community of people that are there in that area and built their own houses, private houses. They're not snobs and it's not NIMBY. And there was a county development plan which is due to expire, a new one should be developed. We have permission for a large number of houses from Board Penola with a lot of conditions. And that expires on the 29th of this month. And the thing when we have Cowboy Builders arrive on the scene on Saturday morning, before 8pm, before anyone got up, and continue to develop, in spite of a warning notice from the County Council, in spite of having no commencement notice sent in to Building Control and Development Action, and the County Council officials, they're aware of it and they're issuing them notices, but that's not good enough. These people want to plough on, they've now dug foundations this evening for houses right up on top of others which Board Penola had denied. This land is deemed to be Z-zoned in the new planet because there's too much land zoned in Cair. These people want houses, want to have people to get houses, affordable houses, local authority houses and private houses, nice mixture, but they want to be consulted and respected. And above all, the planning laws of the land cannot be allowed to be flouted by any company, whether they come from this town, which apparently they do, and where they might have some celebrity sports celebrities and broaden their company, they can't ride roughshod over the planning laws, and especially over the people. And I stand with those people, who have housed themselves, and housing their families, and now is all they want is the same law to be applied to developers, as is applied to any individual, whether they build an extension or a bathroom, a downstairs bathroom for a disabled person or somebody who has a stroke or whatever. And if they did that without commencement notice, they can be stopped in their tracks by the council. And these people seem to think that they're all powerful, and they can ride roughshod, broke every head and saverly law in the book, last Saturday morning, I was there on site myself, and called to it, and not a sign, not a yellow jacket, a hard pad, they had nicks all right, that's what they had, and disrespected the people, and in regard to she kind of had to be called. So I want South Tipperary County Council to go to the courts if necessary, because sending them warning notices or warning letters, you might as well be sending them paper, the Irish trying to do something to read, they don't respect it. This is the culture that grew up around the big developers, and some of them, not all of them, some very good developers, and I know them as well, and built houses and want to build, and they want to be unchecked and left-built. But this kind of carry-on cannot be allowed carry-on in 2020, by rogue developers who want to come in, and rogue landowners who want to sell the land in a slip-tot way. Land, you know, that was, that was, the nice developers, there were many plans for us, for creches and for community, community situations, and we also wanted to build a Scouts Hall back in the day, when it was being planning for us, and the previous owner, Mr. Lockton, did a good job as well, and would talk to the people. We want engagement with people, whatever community is there, you want goodwill, you want support, we want people to live in harmony, whether they be private, social and affordable, or social, and we need to get a building campaign going for the social, give the county councils the money, they'll send up a report to your department minister, and in six months date it'll come down again, they'll send it up for six months again, and down again, up and down again, pushing paper around the country, instead of building the homes and the houses. The banks are not functioning, so they're not functioning, but what sickens me altogether is, I have at least 20 in my books of farm families in Tipperary, where the son is inheriting the farm or the daughter, and they want to get married, they have the money, they have the way with all, they build their own house, and they can't get planning. It's bizarre, and rural Ireland's been the news of his population, and it must be a loud tribe, a living town and villages, we must have them, can't be hurting them all into Dublin, and Cork, where all the ministers are now Dublin and Cork, and none in the west, the west, Cork City, oh Cork City, yeah, the west, the west awake, we used to sing, the west, forgotten about now, written off, cut off into the Irish Sea, so we must have supports for ordinary people, allow them, and build the houses for the people that want them. Thank you, Deputy.