Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I live in County Louth and I know what is going on there. The refusal rate in rural County Louth was 40%. That equates to 70 families that have to live in mobile homes, live with friends or live wherever they can because they cannot get planning permission. The Government is instructing local authorities to build houses on local authority-owned land. However, our local authorities are refusing landowners and families to build on their land. That is a contradiction. There is a housing crisis at the moment. The Government is considering putting people out at sea or anywhere else where it can find homes but one thing this country has is loads of land. Can we not just get up off our backsides and for once and for all look after these people who have no homes? I know families in County Louth that have hundreds of acres of land but they cannot build on that land.

I ask the Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to come to County Louth to investigate what is going on. Something serious is going on at the moment. The Tánaiste should see the answers applicants are given. They get abrupt answers which suggest that they should not ring the council because they have got their answer, end of story. There is a crisis in this country at the moment. There are lots of things in this country that I do not like, including demonstrations and everything else but people are frustrated that they cannot build on their own land. It makes no sense whatsoever.

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