Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The young fella was raised all his life on the same acre. The father has a half-acre now and so has the son. This designation is preventing him getting planning permission. I left out a very important part. This young fella wanted to build a house next door to his father because his father has got bad medical information concerning his future and he wanted the son and his wife to be beside him. That has been refused.

Likewise, there is a lady seven miles east of Killarney. This area is designated as under strict urban-generated pressure despite being seven miles away from the town. This young woman cannot get permission. She could get a site practically next door. It is an affordable site. The fella I mentioned was getting the site for nothing. There is another instance in Kenmare. I have several instances where this is militating against people from a basically rural area getting planning permission because they are deemed to be in an area that is under strict urban-generated pressure. This is having the effect that these people cannot build next door to where they were born and reared. They are not coming not coming out from the town or any urban setting.

It is also having an effect in that many young people aged between 28 and 32 years are sizing up where they are going to live. They cannot afford to buy a house in Killarney town as €600,000 is the going rate. The price of a site is €300,000, if people want to go down that route. It is hard to get them in any case because any ground in the town of Killarney will be got together. They will not sell sites separately, so it is developers who end up purchasing them and selling the houses back for €600,000. That is the price of them at present. The effect this is having is that many young fellas and girls aged between 28 and 32 are leaving our shores for places like Australia, Dubai and Canada. They see they can never come up to the mark whereby they could get a mortgage or build a house. They cannot come up with that amount of money. People are deciding their future at that stage. They have a bit of money, but the problem is they do not have enough. This means many of our local people are leaving rural places because their area is designated as being under urban-generated pressure. I beg the Minister to look at that fact. The Planning Regulator went at this to stop people coming out from towns, but what it is actually doing in Muckross, Headford, Kilcummin and all those areas around Killarney is stopping those young people from getting permission. They are leaving our shores now because they are deciding they can never afford a house. These are people who are asking for nothing but planning permission. They will build the house themselves. It is very unfair and it is undemocratic. Farmers’ sons and daughters are being looked after and I welcome that, but it is very hard for some fella to see his neighbour next door, who he grew up with and went to school with, getting planning permission while he is being refused. He has nothing else to do only leave if he cannot afford to buy a house in Killarney, which is a no-go for many of them now.

I ask the Minister to look at this matter. This very strict rule is being applied since last June and is affecting so many boys and girls. They are leaving for other lands because of it.

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