Danny Healy-Rae warns on CPOs, urges funding to buy rural sites
Danny Healy-Rae spoke on rural housing, compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) and shortages of land in County Kerry. He warned CPOs could acquire lands unnecessarily and urged the minister to fund local authorities to purchase sites for housing.
CPO concerns
He expressed deep worry about the CPO aspect, saying lands could be acquired by compulsory purchase orders and that this risk must be addressed when planning for housing and land use.
Calls for local authority funding
He asked the minister to fund local authorities so they can purchase sites around villages and towns, arguing that local authorities should be enabled to buy land and build houses themselves.
Rural scale and planning limits
He contrasted large urban populations above 30,000 with villages of 1,000 to 2,500, saying rural areas have different needs. He said Kerry County Council currently has very little or no land available for development in many towns and villages.
Specific Kerry localities named
He named local places facing shortages - Corriscatedllyn, Ratmore and Guinea-Guilla - and said planning land is exhausted in many rural towns and villages across the county.
Infrastructure and voids
He highlighted sewerage problems as a barrier to progress and development. He also criticised the "tin and purchase" scheme, saying it denies 80% of applications to purchase their houses, and noted there are 162 voids in County Kerry that require funding to bring back up to standard.
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Mr Minister, I suppose, again I'm very worried about the CPO aspect of it, that lands could be acquired by CPO, other lands that could be acquired by CPO. The other thing that I'm very worried about, I know that there's a big problem here in Dublin, and we have problems down in Kerry as well, but they're different and they can be sorted out differently. You're talking of populations basically over 30,000, where I could be talking about villages with 1,000 or 2,500, and they need to be assisted as well. And in many instances now, Kerry County Council doesn't have land to build in in these places. And I'm asking you to fund the local authorities, at least to buy sites where the Minister is not listening now, where he could be. I'm asking you, Minister, I know you look at it after or whatever, but I'm asking you to fund the local authorities so that they can purchase sites around local villages and towns. Our planning, our land at the minute is exhausted, we have no more, very little land left in most of the rural towns and villages like Corriscatedllyn, Ratmore, Guinea-Guilla, all of those places, no land. I am asking you to fund the local authorities so that they can purchase land that they can build houses on themselves and to set out the problems with the sewerage problems because that is denying progress and development in those areas. We have different problems. The tin and purchase scheme that we have is denying 80% of applications the right to purchase out their houses and that money is going to deal with voids and bring them back up to standard. At the present time, we have 162 voids in the County of Kerry. It is absolutely crazy. Thank you Deputy Healey Ray. Thank you very much.
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