MEP calls for immediate reversal of rural housing restrictions
Independent Ireland MEP, Ciaran Mullooly has today (May 19) urged local authorities to immediately reverse restrictions on one-off rural housing.
The MEP has warned that current planning policies are driving a deepening emergency for families and communities across Ireland and Europe.
Addressing the Housing Crisis Committee, MEP Mullooly highlighted the acute challenges faced by rural homeowners, particularly in Ireland, where building a home on family land has historically been the only viable route to homeownership for people.
The MEP also condemned the 'growing' trend of local people being denied planning permission after incurring prohibitive costs for reports, only to be refused the right to build on ancestral land.
According to the MEP, these barriers are 'fueling a cycle of depopulation', with young people unable to return, local schools losing teachers, sports clubs folding, and vital community hubs like pubs and post offices closing.
Rural housing
MEP Mullooly has criticised planning systems that prioritise environmental protections, such as safeguarding bogs, over the 'survival of rural communities'.
He said: 'Let me be absolutely clear, rural Ireland is not a museum. It is not to be preserved for the benefit of planning documents or biodiversity reports.
'Rural Ireland is living and breathing, but struggling to survive, impacted by decisions made in distant rooms with no links to that place.'
'So we must see the full deployment of the Just Transition fund and ERDF fund to support these local communities,' Mullooly added.
The MEP has called for a balanced approach that recognises both the socio-economic and cultural benefits of one-off housing and the advances in modern environmental techniques that can address legitimate concerns.
Mullooly also warned that uncertainty over future funding in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MMF) threatens to undermine vital rural development efforts.
He called for full deployment of the Just Transition fund and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to empower local communities and insisted that planning must be community-led and designed by locals rather than 'imposed from distant bureaucracies'.
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