Danny Healy-Rae: Rural planning rules block young families' homes

Thanks, Lax Concurla. I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk about housing and affordable housing and all that because it's a very serious problem and there are many young couples looking at us here this evening and they're wondering will they ever achieve or put a roof over their heads. It is a naturally desirable thing for any couple or young person to want to put a roof over their heads and own their own home but it's becoming increasingly difficult because of the cost of materials and it's becoming increasingly difficult for them to get planning in rural areas especially in rural parts of Kerry. Because of designations, I've spoken about it here earlier this evening, designations that are applied under the assistance of the regulator and the planning authorities and have to be adhered to by the local authority. And one of those is the urban-generated pressure clause and it was designed, which was wrong, to stop people coming out from towns and villages and building in rural areas. It was wrong for that but it's equally wrong where it stops a local person in that area is deprived of getting planning permission because it's only the landowner's son or daughter can get it in that urban-generated area. And that's a very wrong clause because people should be entitled to get planning permission to build where they want to build their permanent residence and I wouldn't mind the clause being put on them if they got the permission and indeed they wouldn't mind it either. So that's one of the things and we have the regulator completely blocking people from getting planning permission in other rural areas and coming down and insisting that permission not to be granted in different places. And we have Board Penale then, where planning is granted by Kerry County Council, some nasty individual appeals, the decision like Antashka have done many times and made life miserable for so many families. Kerry County Council granted the permission, someone of them appealed it to Board Penale and then even though the investigating officer from the inspector that comes down agrees, agrees with the local authority, lo and behold for some reason when it goes back before the Board in Board Penale it is refused then and the couple of the young person is denied the planning permission that they should have got. And I agree with previous speakers in relation to sewerage facilities and water facilities. We in Kerry have 22 villages without any sewerage facility. Places like Skatedlenen, Coral, Asdee, Cahar Danel, Balansch-Gellings, different places and they can't expand a row because they don't have a sewerage facility. And like has been previously said, the government and the Department of Environment will have to step in and assist Irish Water because they don't have the funds, they don't have the funds to carry out all these schemes. Because all they are compelled and what they are liable to carry out is to maintain the facilities that are there already and just putting them to the pin of their collar to do that. Because of a place like Kinmeyer and Castle Island, you can get planning permission there for development but you can build the houses until the schemes are put in place and extended and expanded. There are 17 schemes waiting, towns and villages waiting to rejuvenate and to make their plants, bring them up to standard. I say about zoning, the regulator is continuously interfering about zoning and what he is doing is de-zoning lands. And we have ministers here saying that they want to build affordable houses and that they want to build houses. How can you build housing and build affordable housing if we are de-zoning most of the land in any one settlement? And in most cases they are only going to allow one developer or one plot of land in each settlement to be zoned. And that is wrong because that gives that person, that side of the village or town, a monopoly and they can charge what they like. So talk about affordable, it is out the window when there is no competition for prices. So I am saying, as I have said previously, zone plenty land and let the market decide where the houses will be built. And, or else, don't zone any land or let every planning application go in and be decided either by the, depending on the size of it, by the local authority, or more penal, and forget about zoning. And that would be a wayfarer and to allow people, even single applicants, to buy a site close to the village or town and build because they wouldn't have to have it zoned, as they are at present. I had a person in a very small village recently, and a couple, a young couple, and they were, they applied for permission outside of the village and they were refused because it wasn't zoned land. And they couldn't buy a site inside the little village or town because it wasn't there and it wasn't available. So, ministers, you have to wake up to these facts. I have Deputy Nocton talking about building social housing, our two-bedroom boom doors for all the people. I would like to take him down to Kerry and to Ratmoor, where Jorodunu and the Social Action Group have been doing that for years, successfully, housing elderly couples and even single people. And they should be complimented, and that man should be especially complimented for the foresight and vision that he had in what he has done and what he is continuing to do with his team around him. I also want to compliment Michael Cronen, Thermal Build Houses, on the great work they are doing for building voluntary social housing. In Killarney, they are now in Milltown, and in different towns and villages, and indeed, Khmer Planter, who are doing much the same in Baradouf. And they deserve credit for the high standard of houses that they are building. Failing licenses, and we hear the cost of materials and the increased cost of timber just going up and up again. If you want timber to build a house in Kerry at the present time, you will have to wait for delivery for six weeks, and they won't know or can't tell you what the price will be on the land with the timber, because it is going up and up, it is being imported. Yet, at the same time, in Germany and other countries, there is no filling license required, because when you plant a forestry, it is a recognised fracture, it is going to have to be cut down at some stage, so if they were granted permission to plant it, they shouldn't need a filling license to either thin it or to clear-fell it at any time. And the quicker we realise that, because our forestry industry has gone down this money, and there is job after job being lost, because, and contractors that have specialised gear and equipment for coating timber, and for drawing out the timber, and all those kind of things, they are either going to Scotland or they have gone bushed. So, you will have to wake up, that is what is happening, and I hope that you are listening, because it is a very serious matter, and there is more things being lost in the reign of this government, than in any government previous to now, and this is the most, one of the most serious things. The tin and purchase scheme, going back a number of years, you could buy, you could rent out a council house for a year or two, or for a number of years, and you were entitled to purchase it, there was a scheme that you could purchase it after that. That scheme is, that we have at the present time, 80% of the applicants are being refused. You need to look at that scheme, because that was a very important scheme, and a valuable scheme, where people got on their feet, after renting for so many years, and they were able to purchase the scheme, purchase their house. They are being ruled out now, they are being denied that availability that was there, all the years passed, and that money used to do up voids, houses, we have 162 voids in Kerry at the present time, because they have no fund to bring them up to the standard, that they have to bring up the houses to no less, that is a very, very serious matter, and if you are talking about affordable houses and all that, you have to look at all those things. Yes, I am moving on to the enlightening question about the floor for a thousand-mill peasants.