Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I receive calls weekly regarding planning permission rejections, with some people spending between €15,000 and €20,000 in the planning process before any works are done. This is not just hearsay. It was reported at the May meeting of Louth County Council that planning permission was refused for 40% of rural homes in Louth in 2022. This means that 70 out of the 177 planning applications for rural dwellings were rejected in 2022, affecting 70 families.

From 2021, Louth’s planning permission requirements in rural areas are very restrictive when compared with the rest of the country, especially in relation to the local needs requirement. Louth is a small county and we are starting to run out of suitable sites. We need to help rural areas to sustain and grow into the future. While the population and housing need in County Louth will continue to grow by about 20%, statistics in the Louth county development plan indicate that housing in rural areas will only be permitted to grow by around 9.4% from 2021 to 2027. Why is there such a disparity? Rural communities are being, and will continue to be, greatly impacted if this does not change.

Housing in rural Ireland has always been a major difficulty. All politicians know that there are issues with planning. What we find in my area of Louth and east Meath is that young people are being refused planning permission in rural areas because of considerations relating to the scenic landscape and this, that and the other. The variation in the reasons for refusal is shocking in a time of housing crisis. It seems to me that the planning policies that are being put before councils today are very anti-rural in nature. They are pushing people from rural communities into bigger towns and villages, which is very unfair.

The average age for somebody leaving the parental home in Ireland is now 28 years. It used to be 23 or 24 years of age but now people are spending four or five more years at home than they would have done 15 or 20 years ago. We have to turn that around. If young people want to remain in rural areas, they are being forced to extend their parent’s home in order to gain planning permission. Obviously, there are some stipulations that must be met but applicants will generally not be refused point blank because it is an existing house. However, if they want to build on family land in rural areas in Louth, they are being rejected.

We have got to look at housing from every angle. As I said earlier, there are people who are finding it almost impossible to get planning permission in my community. The Rural Independent Group brought forward a motion last week in the Dáil in respect of easing the restrictions on planning with recommendations to look at alternative housing design and models of housing, such as log cabins and modular homes. These offer a way to assist young people into home ownership. However, this approach seems to be discouraged, with excessive restrictions on rural planning permission. I hope that there can be a change in mindset on that. It is absurd that the current over-burdensome restrictions on planning permission in rural areas are still in place when the country is facing a growing homelessness crisis. We need up to 62,000 homes built per year until 2050 to meet demand.

Local authorities have agreed to review their policy as the current restrictive rules mean applicants are being refused. Can the Tánaiste outline the planned measures to alter and ease rural planning guidelines, housing design and housing models so we can unlock the potential of delivering twice as many homes in the same location? I believe that this can be changed by ministerial directive and in doing so, we can alleviate the housing crisis and aid the development of rural Ireland.

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