Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the short time I have available, I will speak about a group of people who are often forgotten, people in rural areas. One-off houses were previously the mainstay of the social housing scheme for many local authorities throughout the country but this has vanished in the past 15 or 20 years. Members of the farming community, in many cases small farmers in severely disadvantaged areas, were able to give a site to the local authority for the construction of houses. Such houses were previously called the farmer's cottage and latterly became known as the one-off rural house for social housing for people in rural areas. I encourage the Minister to re-examine that scheme. These people are bringing something to the table, and in many cases it is a valuable asset.

The Minister made changes recently to the building regulations for one-off private rural houses but this is adding to the housing problem. There are unrealistic regulations, and the Minister knows what I am talking about, in terms of planning permission and a third party organisation being given a right to object to a person's ability to build on their property. This organisation is based in Dublin 4 and has no connection to a rural area but can pass judgment on a person's wish to live in a rural location. The Department has an obligation to examine that. The organisation is funded by the Department and is allowed to travel around the country and lodge objections willy-nilly when people wish to build a house on their land. It is about time it was called to book.

I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts and one of the issues that has arisen there time and again is NAMA and the allocation of social housing to the local authorities in Dublin, in particular, and in the greater Leinster area. There is no rational explanation for the refusal by some of the local authorities in Leinster and especially Dublin to accept perfectly good houses. They have been refused point blank by the local authorities while thousands of people linger on the housing lists. I call on the Department to examine this issue.

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