Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Davitt and Mr. Kennedy. I thank them for the excellent presentation. I sit on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Clearly, all of the issues the witnesses are touching on we also have touched on. I draw the witnesses' attention to a report on town and village regeneration that was published earlier this year, on which we made 39 recommendations. I will send a copy of it to the witnesses. Many of those reoccurring issues, as raised by the witnesses, are on it. I will come back to that in a moment.

I am also a member the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA. Over the past few days we have been meeting in Jersey. One of the points that came up was the over-reliance on new builds and particularly in the context of rural communities, for example in Scotland and in Wales, and indeed in Jersey, which is one of the BIPA jurisdictions. It is very clear that there are a number of major challenges, one of which is around rural housing guidelines. The Government has promised repeatedly for the past two or three years that it would bring in regulations on this. Some of the witnesses may be familiar with the Flemish decree and the findings there about the movement of people, goods, and economy across the European Union, and the challenges around that in the movement of people into Ireland and the building of houses. We also have language restrictions in some sets of circumstances. I understand there is a reason for that but we must put everything on the table.

With regard to vernacular or rural housing, it is interesting that the institute embedded into its report the statistics for the vacancy rates across Ireland. At the very top of the spectrum and moving down we can see Leitrim at 15%; Roscommon at 13.4%; Mayo at 13%; Kerry at 11.4%; Monaghan at 10%; Waterford at 7%; and all the way down to Kildare, which is the lowest, at 5.3%. There are demands now with remote working and people want to work at home. In many cases they want to go back to their rural roots.

Coupled with this there is a recognition that families there are suffering, and especially in rural communities where parish life is coming to a standstill. GAA clubs are challenged to get members and communities are virtually locked up when their post offices and pubs are closing down all around them. Yet, there is great potential and a desire for people to live in rural communities. Wireless broadband is now being rolled out. There are many opportunities and good reasons people would want to live in rural Ireland. We also see and understand the necessity for some people to go to live back in rural communities to support their elderly parents or elderly members of the family.

There are also issues around succession. We do not see many people farming full time any more. People have worked out a living with part-time farming and other enterprises, agri-enterprises, or off-site enterprises to supplement their income. We are aware of all of that. It raises the issue of what we are doing about it and why are we not addressing it. The witnesses have made very valid points about living over the shop, which is important but we also see a lot of derelict former agricultural houses. We discussed this yesterday and the day before on the fringes of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, asking how can we somehow incentivise and encourage in that regard. Let us consider the Scottish model for a moment. They have housing trusts that have acquired ten, 15, or 20 houses in a cluster. They would not necessarily be next door to each other but perhaps would be within a five-mile radius. These houses would have been acquired with the assistance of the local authority or the housing authority, or very long leases have been put on them. The properties are then done up and leased back to people who wish to stay in the community. It is not about selling the houses because the trust would not like to lose total control, but people who wish to live in a community in a rural part can apply and if they fulfil certain criteria and conditions they could have up to a 30-year lease. We must look at more imaginative ways here. That could be through a public private partnership or a co-operative. It does not always have to be a local authority. It could also be a housing association. We must look more imaginatively at what we can put to use. It is ultimately in order that people can live there but it is all about sustainable communities, sustainable travel and environmental considerations, and a whole range of reasons. I am supportive of everything the witnesses have said. I thank them for articulating their recommendations and asks in nine concise points. I have no difficulty with any of them.

We will be talking to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, later. They will have their own experience about their own membership and their own knowledge. I would encourage the IPAV to have greater synergy with them because they understand the lay of the land, as do members here in this committee, and the desire to support rural communities and keep people on the land that was given to them or handed down to them by their forebears. It is a generational thing and there are issues around that.

I have one simple question to ask about the capital gains tax. It is a very interesting point. Will Mr. Davitt flesh that out more and tell us what the IPAV has in mind? I support it. We need to keep the message simple on the requirements around that. Capital gains is a major challenge for everybody but especially for succession and passing on. If we are to be honest, a lot of our dereliction is problematic around that. If we had this sorted out, we could release a substantial amount - perhaps 100,000 - dwellings around the country. The IPAV engagement with us is very important. I support all of the proposals and I would urge the IPAV to collaborate with rural communities and look at other imaginative ideas for housing authorities for how we can collaborate, and how we could use them for co-operatives or collectives to support people in rural communities. I thank Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Davitt for coming to the committee today.