Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of house planning in Gaeltacht communities and rural communities. I call on the Minister for housing and planning to take practical steps to allow native Irish speakers to be allowed to submit a planning application but, more importantly, to be granted planning permission to build a single home on their lands. We need to be mindful of Government policy on the Gaeltacht areas. If we have no Irish speakers, we will have no Gaeltacht areas. If we have no Gaeltacht areas, we will not have the provision and supports for Irish speakers, so it goes hand in hand.

The Leader will be aware that this week, RTÉ featured a native Irish speaker born in Connemara, the Leader's area, who is seeking to build a three-bedroom house. That person made multiple applications and was refused on each one. People cannot afford to buy a house in the Gaeltacht area within the price range that is being asked and therefore cannot provide a home. This is replicated throughout rural parts of Ireland and is unacceptable. For the past ten years, the Government has continually talked about new rural housing guidelines. Today, I reissue that call and ask the Government to publish the rural housing guidelines and subject them to a public consultation. No one wants one-off rural housing that is not properly and sensitively integrated into the landscape and does not adhere to planning conditions.

In many rural parts of Ireland active farmers are also prevented from building a home on land representing their main place of work. These active farmers cannot build a home there and cannot live there. That is unfair and unacceptable. It is incompatible with stated Government policy and I am asking that something be done about it. I am asking for the Minister to come to the House for a debate specifically on rural housing and building houses in Gaeltacht communities because they need our support. We need to stop talking about gestures and put in place practical supports for people who want to build homes in rural parts of Ireland such as the Gaeltacht area where the Leader lives.