Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister the very best in his new role. Affordable housing is every family's dream but, sadly, it is not the reality for many families. Over the past four years, I have seen a large amount of lip service but no delivery on the ground. Housing and planning in this country is a total mess. It goes against families, building and local communities; it is basically anti-everything and it has left us a mess that will take us years, if not decades, to clean up.

I urge the new Government to look at models that have worked throughout the world. I met a Norwegian native living in west Cork over the weekend. He came to Ireland to live and has bought some ground. He loves our country, our culture and that he can farm his land; due to ridiculous planning regulations, however, he is unable to build on that land. Looking at the new Cork county development plan, I can see nothing will change, and if anything things will get worse. Anybody who wants to live permanently in a place could prove it but every obstacle is put before such people to ensure they cannot set up a home even if they have fallen in love with the land. This man tells me it is different in Norway, where everything is done to accommodate people who want to reside in rural communities. Instead of obstacles being put in families' way, they are encouraged to get the application across the line.

Affordable housing sounds like a good deal but one "affordable" site among many was sold in west Cork for lottery money a number of years ago, taking it from the hands of local families who wanted to purchase it.

The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme could have made a major difference to people who are unable to get loans from banks. Figures indicate, however, that more than 50% of applicants have failed to secure funding under the scheme, leaving many dreams in tatters.

During discussions on a programme for Government for the previous Government – I was around the table at the time – a promise was made to look seriously at a rural resettlement scheme. Falling populations have completely devastated rural communities and such a scheme would have been a way of turning this around, as was done in County Clare many years ago. Instead, we read week after week and month after month of rising numbers in emergency housing in our cities. A living over the shop type scheme in rural towns and villages could have tackled the housing crisis and would have been a main charge going forward for genuine applicants. However, rural Ireland was not on the radar of the previous Government. I hope we will not the same again this time around but time will tell.

Every day, single people and families plead with me for houses in west Cork. Most of them cannot afford to purchase through housing schemes in west Cork. In my time on the council, I remember a big launch being held in 2014 for a scheme in Clonakilty, an area that is desperately in need of affordable housing. It is now 2020 and the scheme has still not been delivered. This is a cause of great concern locally. While Clonakilty is doing well as regards employment, the area needs social and affordable homes to be made available. The same applies in Kinsale. Last night, a young man called me to plead for accommodation. There is little difference in Dunmanway, although I will admit that a number of houses have been allocated to people in Rosscarbery in the past two weeks. I thank Ellen in my office who has helped people to get homes and settle in. We have had cases in Skibbereen, Bandon, Bantry, Castletownbere and Goleen. The story is always the same. Every day, the phones in my office are jammed with calls from people pleading for homes.

I sincerely hope that affordable homes will be made available to those who desperately need them in the weeks and months ahead. I also hope the new Minister tackles head on the planning policy units and stops this nonsense that prevents families from building on their own lands. Decisions preventing people from building have resulted in the loss to communities of great families over the years.

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