Rural Housing

The decision to retain the existing Rural Development Chapter of the 2013-2019 is the correct one. In a country with a severe housing supply issue, it is beggar’s belief that a route to home ownership would be removed from citizens who are  born and raised in rural areas and in most cases part of the fabric of the rural community.

SEA  -  impact of rural housing  on populations in urban areas, there is a  severe disconnect from the reality of Ireland in 2021. Urban residential areas will suffer no shortage of demand, the construction industry cannot keep up with the demand for new houses, furthermore  existing houses in rural, village and urban settings are being snapped up. Dereliction is the least of our worries. 

 SEA concerns about single vehicle travel from rural areas, the government should focus on improving planning in urban areas, DMURS is a joke and as far as I can see new estates have 2 car parking spaces per house in many cases. Improved public transport links between urban centres and cycling infrastructure  is the solution to single vehicle travel, not banning one off rural housing. 

The rural nodes are disgrace, landowners are under no obligation to sell land in a rural node. 

You can almost drink water from modern wastewater treatment systems, the Boyne has adequate assimilative capacity for the negligible contamination. People do not put septic tanks in anymore. Existing planning requires percolation tests. Agriculture is the biggest  polluter of waterways and ground water, not biocycle WWTP systems. 

The existing planning rules are quite strike, you cannot just decide, as a city/town dweller that you want to build  a house in the country. You cannot build outside your own community. You cannot build more than 4 houses in a row over a 250m distance.

2021 is not the time to be banning one of rural housing.