Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are in the midst of a housing crisis that is worsening month by month. It is the actions of this Government, its refusal to listen to experts and its insistence that the market will provide that has accelerated this crisis so rapidly. All we see from this Government is its head in the sand as it refuses to admit the market has failed.

These actions have failed rural Ireland so severely on housing. I look across my home county of Kilkenny where the Government’s failure to invest in modern, fit-for-purpose water and sewage facilities has ensured that large banks of land prime for building are left unusable. Bennettsbridge is the next town to see service upgrades but these works are not planned to start until 2029. Until these works are completed, communities in south Kilkenny, like my own village of Knocktopher as well as Ballyhale and Mullinavat, will see no developments being built. This is having a devastating impact on communities. It is pulling the social cohesion of rural Ireland apart. So often I meet young families and couples who are eager to raise a family in the communities in which they were reared where their parents, uncles, aunts and cousins live, that is, their support network, but the only option they are left with is to travel far from that community. As a result of the actions of the Government, we are left watching rural Ireland decline and more of our children and communities emigrate while an ageing population is left struggling for resources and care.

The knock-on effects of the failure to invest in housing across rural communities are having a crippling impact. Schools, sports teams, local shops and pubs are all left struggling. Investing in housing and infrastructure is not just about units or bricks and mortar but about insuring sustainability across rural Ireland and supporting communities that have contributed so richly to our economy and culture.

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