I welcome the updated housing plan. The plan is only as good as the money that goes into it and ultimately this is the largest investment that has ever been made into housing. The launch of the infrastructure plan this morning will give the plan the credence it needs to go forward and actually deliver the homes. They have to be underpinned by the necessary infrastructure. Once we have the infrastructure and the funding, really there is no excuse but we do have a problem with red tape, bureaucracy and local authorities. If we want the housing crisis to be resolved or improved, we need our planning departments to look at every zoned site in towns and villages right across the country and ask how we can get homes built there, not how we can stop them or why we should stop them. In my own town of Athenry, in 2023, over 200 homes were refused in the space of two months. We have 1,000 jobs on the way to the town now and housing is going to be a huge issue. We need our planning departments acting decisively to make sure that homes are being granted on these sites and that they are working in conjunction with developers and councillors to see homes delivered. The wastewater shared treatment systems in rural villages are really welcome. Countless villages in County Galway have not seen homes built for 15 years because they would have been refused planning if anyone went for a small scheme of ten or 15 homes. Those small schemes provide people for those villages, for the GAA clubs, the local schools and the local community. They are the people who end up contributing to those areas, whose populations have declined in the last 15 years. It is vital that the spec on those shared wastewater treatment systems not be overkill and that when Uisce Éireann works with the developer, it can take them over swiftly and efficiently so that developers are not waiting for the ESB or Uisce Éireann but have collaborative partners that want to see them get the job done and get these houses built. The last point I will make is around the backyard modular units. I have a fear that whenever the guidelines come out for the updated exempted development guidelines, they will be over-specced and overkill, and people will not have that flexibility to do what they need in their own back garden space. There is a huge opportunity there to provide units that could benefit communities and families and would act as a support to people as well.

Sentiment score: 0.09