Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and my Commencement matter relates to the issue of new rural housing guidelines. As she will be aware, the Government has promised these guidelines for a number of years.

I have a letter dated 9 May 2017 in front of me from the then Minister who promised that there would be rural guidelines. I am sure the Minister of State will also be aware of the Flemish decree and the conflict in terms of European law regarding the suggestion about rural housing and regulation within the European Union around that and the ongoing legal challenges.

As I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, I straddle those two areas. Clearly, I am in very close contact with rural communities and urban areas within rural communities regarding the demands for housing. Yesterday afternoon, I spent time in Longford and Roscommon, last night I was in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, and a few days ago I was in the Acting Chair's constituency of Kildare and west Wicklow. In all those places, I talked to members of those communities about rural housing and the challenges they face when it comes to rural housing. As a result, I am aware that many farm families feel that the Government is inactive when it comes to rural housing policy and has forced many of them off the land of their forebears due to unreasonable policy decisions, restrictions in terms of the granting of planning permission for rural lands, and preventing the sons and daughters of farmers from living on the land and in communities in which they were born and reared. The Government is midway through its term in office yet it still has not published the new rural housing guidelines. The Minister's long-promised new rural housing guidelines need to be published so a degree of certainty, clarity and understanding about the possibilities of young families and young couples exploring the options of either restoring old farm homesteads or looking at new housing options in their rural communities. In particular, I am thinking of the younger people who wish to stay in their communities. I am sure that the Minister of State will understand the benefits of young people either staying in or returning to their rural communities to support and build up communities, which is so vital for the many parts of Ireland that are dying on their feet. These places need new people or young people to return to their roots. The advantages when family members return to their communities are immeasurable. We cannot overestimate the importance and significance of people being allowed to live in their own communities.

I fully recognise the importance of having a clear policy and objectives to protect the rural landscape because that is important. We must ensure that environmental matters are important in the context of housing options in the countryside. I am sure that the Minister of State will know that a sustainable rural housing policy is important. I call for a policy to be published in terms of sustainable rural housing guidelines for sustainable rural communities. Again, the Government must work on policy that constructively supports rural communities and secure affordable housing through community trusts. I mentioned the latter because there are community trusts in Scotland that buy land in rural communities and then build co-operatives to build houses. We need to consider community trusts as a first option in Ireland. We must also consider imaginative partnerships with local government, landlords and housing associations to deliver affordable housing options. Can we have a degree of certainty about the rural housing guidelines that the Government might bring in?