Ms Elaine Houlihan:

Everyone here has noted the issue of inconsistency. There is inconsistency from the banks, infrastructure and planning, and even regarding septic tank grants. Inconsistency is what is driving us out of rural Ireland, the place where we want to have a home, and I emphasise the word "home". I know of a brother and sister who both applied for planning permission on the family farm at the same time. The brother is working the farm and the sister is not. They intended to build identical houses in order to piggy-back and get things done a bit cheaper. The brother got his planning but the sister was refused because the planner said the building did not fit with the landscape despite the intention to have the houses built only 300 m apart in the same field. That is simply baffling.

In the past couple of weeks, I have spoken about the housing issue with many people who have moved abroad to countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Of the 50 people I spoke to, 34 of them told me they had moved abroad because they could not obtain planning permission or could not renovate an old farmhouse and they could not see a future here. Red tape is preventing many people from staying in rural Ireland.

Regarding planning objections, the fee to lodge an objection is only €20. This facilitates serial objectors. For a mere €100 they can lodge five objections. A person could put that amount of money aside in a week. I know that people are finding things tough financially but this fee needs to be raised. People applying for planning permission spend thousands but someone spending only €20 can stall the ball for them. How can that be right? Why something is not being done about it is simply baffling.