Mattie McGrath: Blunt Critique of Housing Policy and Rural Decline
Mattie McGrath spoke on 28 Sep 2021 about housing policy, rural planning and heritage, criticising current approaches as ineffective and overly bureaucratic. He said the policy is "great on paper" but failing in practice, leaving 753 families homeless - 2,120 children and 8,212 adults - and empty town centres.
Noclofti House and heritage
Mattie McGrath appealed to the minister to visit Noclofti House, describing it as part of national heritage that has been plundered and is rapidly deteriorating. He said a promised September visit has not happened and expressed frustration at the state of the property.
Housing policy and homelessness
McGrath attacked the current housing policy as largely theoretical and unable to deliver, saying he left a committee after five years in frustration. He argued voluntary housing associations and grassroots builders have been sidelined by bureaucracy and regulations while homelessness figures remain high.
Rural planning and local communities
He criticised planning provisions for rural Ireland, saying rules prevent families from building for relatives and are hurting communities. As an example he described O'Connor Street in Clonmel, where only one elderly resident remains and many buildings and shopfronts are empty.
Costs, timber, energy and apprenticeships
McGrath warned that rising material and energy costs are undermining building efforts - timber prices fluctuate, suppliers refuse long-term quotes, peat plant closures and higher oil prices have driven up insulation and construction costs. He also highlighted a shortage of apprentices to carry out building work.
Calls for change and next steps
He urged a return to "back to basics" solutions, greater support for voluntary builders and affordable site provision, and a fundamental change in approach to deliver housing. McGrath warned that without those changes current plans will not deliver homes for all and demanded more practical, compassionate policy responses.
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The Minister, Gail Kenny, our former colleague, Bobby Elwood, who is going through a bad patch at the moment, I wish him well. A colleague of yours, Minister, our former colleague, Minister Luke, I asked you already to come to see one of our great houses beside me, in Noclofti, and please will you come down and see us. It is our national heritage, we talked so much about it being Noclofti House, it has been plundered. It was in the last night at a very sad location with one of the houses on the side, and it is the seed and the state of it. You promised you it will come in September, it is nearly gone at this stage. Our Minister, can I say to myself, that I am not going to go to the law? Can I say to myself, that I am not going to go to the law? I say to myself, that I am not going to fall. Look, this housing policy is great in paper, but I am sick and tired of it. I was five years on the committee and I just walked away from it. If Todd could build houses, there would be no one homeless. To think that we would have so many families, 753 families, homeless at the moment. I think that we have 2,120 children and 8,212 adults. It is a shocking entitlement. We will get reports like this. I go to politics like the other night with Fianna Fáil, Fianna Gael and Sinn Féin. I am a Sinn Féin deputy here for this debate, which is amazing. But they would build sandcastles in the sky for you, no bother. They would never do a plan or build a house in the life of voluntary housing associations or anything else. Go back to basics, go back to voluntary housing. They support them. I did it myself with voluntary people, lay people. We have bureaucracy now and rules and guidelines and we have all kinds of rubbish and regulations. And many ministers are as a result of your own party. I mean, Pippa Hackett is sitting there and wants to allow a tree to be cut. You can't get a bit of timber now. A supplier won't give you a price for more than three days because it has gone up and up and up. And you are fooling their hand on extra experts. A man that sets his tree should be allowed to harvest his tree. The same as the man that sets his buds, sets the bead, sets them his canters, or sets anything else. You reap what you sow. That should be in God's law. And what the hell kind of laws are we here that we won't allow that now? Then the price of oil. You close down all the peat plants. The price of insulation has gone through the roof because of the price of oil. And everything. So we're on the one hand talking about down here, instead of sorting out those problems, the planning provisions for rural Ireland for families. Someone asked for nieces and neighbors when they go. You can't even get it for sons or daughters. It's a mockery. And to think that we're hurting people. Take the cities then and the towns and the small towns. It's like Clonmel, Tipperary, and in the county, and Shure, Cashel, all them. Clonmel town, O'Connor Street. In the morning, Mrs Manny O'Gorman, in her 80th year, is the only one person living in O'Connor Street in Clonmel. It used to be busily busting business street, but it also was a living town for many families. Only one. And all those buildings are empty. Up and down stairs or whatever. The shop front, many of them are empty too. But we're talking about doing something with those schemes and incentives for so long. So talk won't start this. These plans and announcements are big. And this is a late number of times because of the disagreements I understand with ideology. So there's no more ideology with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They're all the one. Giant at the hip now. Fáil, Fáil, we speak. Agnesite, church gates, and podium speakers can't call. I remember. Election times and everything else. Now they're all the one. So start listening to the people. Start to have compassion. But above all, now people that can build, have sites to build their houses, and then make it affordable. Because it's not affordable. I mean the prices that are there now, it's going up by the hour literally. Apprenticeships then, we don't have them. We don't have them. When all the apprentices that are out now inside are going to haul back into the colleges who are we going to have to do the work. They're not there. They're not nationalists. Many of them have gone home and left. So there's fundamental problems here. We won't deliver housing for all plants. Housing for none, I'd say we'll deliver. But we need to change fundamentally our way forward. Thank you very much.
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