Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was listening to the debate in my office earlier. One would think that this Government has built no houses but the reality is that 54,000 new homes have been brought into the system and we have provided over 9,000 social houses last year. I very much welcome last week's extension of the grant for vacant and derelict houses to rural areas. That will be beneficial in creating more supply. My office has had numerous inquiries about that since it was announced.

I want to raise a few issues that affect rural counties like Tipperary, which I serve, and highlight some problems that we have. Some of the problems that rural counties have might be overlooked when we focus on the large urban centres. While I was in my office I heard Deputy Boyd Barrett referring to a particular case in Nenagh. I was talking to that lady today on the phone. Tonight she is in a tent with her two children and her husband. That is absolutely intolerable in a country like ours. The threshold for housing support in Tipperary has not been raised. The thresholds were raised in a number of counties in the recent past but Tipperary was overlooked. With rents climbing the way they are at present, people who are on low incomes who are not entitled to housing support are not able to afford anywhere to rent. That is the situation that this lady, her two children and her husband find themselves in tonight. I urge the Minister to lift the threshold for housing support in Tipperary immediately. I suggest that the figure should be €35,000 for housing support so that people are able to afford the rents that are increasing rapidly. Landlords are leaving the rental market and in the majority of cases, when the tenants of those houses come to me, they do not qualify for housing support and are finding it extremely difficult to access rental accommodation. Help is needed there.

The limit for Tipperary under the First Home shared equity scheme has been set at €250,000 which is just not feasible in the context of the price of second-hand houses and the cost of building. A ceiling of €250,000 is too low and this scheme will not work in Tipperary as it stands. The threshold needs to be lifted to €300,000 if the scheme is to work in my county. On the affordable housing fund, the county council has made representations to the Minister for three towns in the county, Thurles, Nenagh and Clonmel. Affordable housing funding must be available for all three towns. At the moment, we are outside that scheme but affordable housing is so badly needed in the county. I urge the Minister to look at that to see what can be done.

The next point I want to make relates to one-off housing. The Tipperary county development plan was finalised in the last couple of months but instead of making it easier to build one-off housing, it has made it more difficult. A lot of people have the ability to build houses in rural areas but the county development plan is being imposed on them. Sight lines are now being determined by the width of the road. I was with a man the other evening who told me the council is seeking a sight line of 110 metres because of the width of the road. It is impossible for him to get that so he is not going to be able to build on the only suitable site he has. Obstacles are being put in the way of people who want to build one-off houses in rural areas. The county development plans have to come under scrutiny by the Minster. We have to recognise that some people want to build houses in rural areas. Obviously, safety has to be a concern but the way that the sight lines have been revised in the county development plan in Tipperary means that it will be much more difficult for people to get planning permission to build one-off houses.

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