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

This Government states that this legislation is aimed at keeping so-called cowboy builders out of the industry so that everybody should be confident in the knowledge that their homes will be built to the highest standards and that any professional service they use is also of a certain standard. I sincerely hope that this Government’s aim to guard against a recurrence of housing defects that were legacies of construction design, workmanship and materials will work. I sincerely hope that this does not put the building of a home by so many young people skyrocketing beyond price controls. The pressure that young people are being put under is unbelievable. Planning permissions in west Cork, in my own constituency, are almost a nightmare move for people who want to start off life and build their own homes. This is a right that anyone should have in their own country and it should be enshrined in our Constitution.

In a recent poll that was carried out for me in west Cork, we found that 70% of planning applications were being turned down on the first attempt. This is truly shocking as these are local farmers, teachers, shop assistants, nurses and home helps who are trying to get a boost in life by trying to go ahead with their first home. Why is this Government putting so many stupid rules and regulations before these good people? How long has one lived in one’s area? What connection does one have with the area? Surely be to God, if someone finds a job in the community, wants to live, have children and contribute to the community and can prove this, it should make them eligible to obtain planning permission. I am afraid, however, that this is not happening. Instead of it being 70% of an acceptance of a grant of planning permission, it is the wrong way around.

On this Government’s green agenda, there are anti-rural policies feeding their way into county development plans. In small communities like Rathbarry in Clonakilty, like Adrigole and Rossmore, Ring, Gaggan and many more, are now excluded in respect of their village nuclei in the county development plan.

The Government is attempting to force people into bigger towns that are already overcrowded and have no living accommodation. It is scandalous that this is the type of county development plan that faces the people of west Cork, but it is. I urge any councillor who wants to protect rural Ireland to reject this county development plan immediately and to take control of the plan, as we did when I was in the council and included rural communities. There is a fury in west Cork. My advice is, unless one is a nod-and-a-wink councillor, to reject this plan out of hand unless immediate changes are made.

We have to look at towns that still have outdated sewerage systems, such as Castletownshend and Goleen. I have heard so many announcements, time after time, from Government politicians that Castletownshend is going to be included and somewhere else is going to be included. They rehash the announcements so often that it is hard to know whether the system they were talking about first has gone in or it is being replaced again. How can these towns develop? How can the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, stand idly by knowing that these towns need urgent sewerage works, while that organisation is chasing every farmer in the country and watching in case an eggcup of effluent spills into a river? For God's sake, it is time for the Minister of State to wake up and smell the grass growing.

Consider Clonakilty, a town that urgently needs development. People are screaming out for houses. Only last week, planning for 93 houses on The Miles Road, Clonakilty, was refused by Cork County Council due to a lack of water. Good God, if this happened in our capital city, Dublin, it would be a crisis beyond words that would have to be debated over and over again, but not in this case because it is Clonakilty. It is west Cork and it falls off the radar, so people can do without water. People face a summer without water if we have a crisis. Young people who want to get planning permission will not be able to get it because there is no water. Water to a home is a simple, basic right. We are now being told that it could be four years. This is having a devastating effect on areas such as Rosscarbery and Timoleague as well as Clonakilty. That 93-house development would have been a welcome boost for Clonakilty, just as it is what Bantry, Skibbereen and other towns need.

Unfortunately, however, the Government is asleep at the wheel. It is forgetting to put the funding where it should be. There is no point in throwing over €200 million out to Aberdeen when the Taoiseach is there. That type of money should be put into west Cork to rebuild rural communities and give the people the same rights, as they are entitled to have. The bottom line is that the housing legislation down through the years has been shocking and, sadly, has left people without homes. I am aware of people who have wanted to start off in council houses in plenty of places and the Government has refused them that right. It will come back to haunt the Government eventually.

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