The government has been called on to oblige local authorities to plan, deliver and support housing in rural areas.
Victor Boyhan, a member of the Seanad, said that county councils should be required to support rural housing irrespective of whether housing is one-off or in clusters.
Boyhan, who is a member of both the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine, and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, raised the issue of rural housing in the Seanad this week.
He called for a ‘help to build’ type of support to be available alongside the Help to Buy Scheme.
Boyhan said that such support would “reflect the nature of the market in rural parts of the country and provide practical support for those wanting to pursue the self-build option”.
“Rural housing guidance should encourage community stakeholders and councils to enter appropriate affordable housing opportunities for all stages of life to foster greater community cohesion,” the senator added.
Boyhan told the Seanad that people should be allowed to remain and return to rural communities, and called for the issue around rural homelessness to be properly recognised.
“Rural housing policy needs to address depopulation; deliver affordable housing options; support community development and cohesion; and grow the rural economy.
“Geographic equity is important in the right of everyone to an adequate home… I would favour local authorities being provided with financial resources for strategic site assembly to secure land and sites, particularly in priority areas,” he added.
“Planners need to be directed to facilitate appropriate rural housing applications subject to compliance with sustainable development,” Boyhan said, calling on the government not “to be clamping down on new one-off rural housing plans in rural communities”.
Rural housing
Last month, the government came in for criticism for a proposed plan to reduce emissions from the transport sector, with some members of the Oireachtas saying the plan discriminates against rural areas.
The Department of Transport published a draft document titled Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improved Efficiency of the Transport System in Ireland, which makes several recommendations on how to reduce emissions in transport.
The document suggests that ‘brownfield’ developments – which have been built on previously – should be prioritised over ‘greenfield’ developments – which haven’t been built on – in the provision of housing.
The former type of development is generally found in or near urban areas, while the latter type is usually found in rural areas.
The Rural Independent Group of TDs claimed that the draft document “imposes another penalty on the rural way of life, affecting those living in rural areas and Irish farming, which is completely unacceptable and deeply unfair”.
Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath said at the time: “Not only would these plans impose additional financial burdens on all residents, but they would also drastically reduce the opportunity for rural planning permissions to build individual homes, pushing almost all new homes into towns, cities, and their surrounding areas”.