Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish also to address the housing crisis and homelessness but to come at it from a completely different angle. I propose a solution which, in addition to attempting to solve the housing crises, seeks also to address town and village sustainability. I have spoken about this before, including to the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Michael Ring, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, but, unfortunately, it has not gained any traction. It is a solution which deserves closer examination.

There are many vacant properties in our towns and villages which could be brought up to standard or redesigned to a standard whereby they could be offered to families who wish to relocate voluntarily from areas of high pressure and housing shortage to get out of homelessness and unsustainably expensive accommodation while starting a new and structured life in our rural towns and villages. The community would benefit by having villages and towns rejuvenated with children attending local schools. Local services and businesses would be supported by those people who chose to relocate. To give a recent example, our housing association in Kilmihil in County Clare offered a house to a man who lives in a council house in a high pressure area. His health was failing and he wished to relocate back to the village where he had connections. He was giving up a three-bedroom council house which he did not need as his family had grown up and moved away. He benefitted from moving back to his local area and the local authority was benefitting by having that house available for a family. As such, two families benefitted from this. The local authority also benefitted.

If one such solution were offered in each county per year, it would mean 52 families benefitting. If ten villages in each county offered a voluntary relocation solution every year, which is quite feasible, 520 families would benefit while allowing other families to move into the vacated accommodation. To make such a scheme work and to scale it up from the example I have described, a central point of contact must be established within the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Through that contact point, communities could give notice of wishing to participate in a scheme like this and local authorities could engage together to allow such a scheme to proceed. It would also allow the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Rural and Community Development and housing agencies to co-operate to facilitate people who wished voluntarily to relocate and get out of the homelessness crisis. It would benefit them and other families as well as the communities to which they moved. Will the Government give serious consideration to the establishment of that central point of contact?

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