Seeking planning permission in Ireland, as many of those bruised by the experience can testify, can be a frustrating and dispiriting experience.
For rural dwellers, the process of building a home in rural Ireland seems to have become even more difficult, despite the housing crisis, with the Greens and others strongly opposed to so-called once-off housing being built.
Families say this has made the practice of building a house on one’s own land far more onerous, and planning application experts seem to agree, citing environmental legislation and varying rules in the byzantine planning processes of the county councils.
Anecdotally, every rural family will share a story of a maddeningly difficult planning battle, their exasperation exacerbated by the fact that they are being denied the right to build on land that may be in the family for generations – and they argue those planning denials are adding to rural depopulation and decline.
Some Independent TDs have called on the authorities to waive the need for planning permission to build once-off log cabins as a solution of sorts to the ever-worsening housing crisis.
That proposal fell on deaf ears, and it is understandable, then, that some people might take umbrage at the ease with which planning permission has been shunted aside to build modular homes for a new category of seemingly more deserving homeless persons, namely asylum seekers and migrants.
These 64 housing units will become home for 64 Ukrainian families currently living in emergency accommodation in Cork over the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/sfIGJSKvxh
— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) June 9, 2023
The modular, or rapid build, homes were constructed at Ballinure Way in Mahon in Cork city, and each can house up to four people who, the government says, will be identified from Ukrainian families who are currently in emergency accommodation such as hotels, and B&B’s.
Rent is capped at 16% of income, and a utility charge of €40 will cover electricity, internet, and waste disposal.
The Department of Housing says that: “Under the European Union (Planning and Development) (Displaced Persons From Ukraine Temporary Protection) Regulations 2022, in response to the influx of displaced Ukranian citizens, the provision of accommodation for Ukranian citizens in a fairly broad range of buildings and structures was given exemption from the requirement to obtain planning permission following on from the EU Temporary Protection Directive of last March.”
No-one begrudges those fleeing war a place to stay, but the decision of the government to waive the need for planning permission in the very, very broad case of helping to providing accommodation for enormous amounts of new arrivals has certainly raised some eyebrows.
Those who are asking why these same extraordinary efforts were not made for the growing numbers of Irish people who are homeless do have a point. An appalling new high was set in April of this year when the latest figures showed that a record 12,259 people were living in emergency accommodation in Ireland – including 3,594 children.
But in addition to that count are the far bigger number of hidden homeless – those who are living on the kindness of family or friends and who have no home to call their own.
New data shows that “in the space of 15 years, Irish 25-29 year olds have gone from 17th most likely in the EU to be still living at home (36%) to 5th most likely out of the 23 reporting so far (68%).”
In the space of 15 years Irish 25-29 year olds have gone from 17th most likely in the EU to be still living at home (36%) to 5th most likely out of the 23 reporting so far (68%),
….ahead of Spain (67%) and just behind Italy (71%)
Mamma mia! pic.twitter.com/TV6dSuS0vR
— Ciarán Nugent (@ciarannugent) June 9, 2023
That’s a very dispiriting trend. How can young people start their own families if they can’t find or afford a home of their own? No wonder our fertility rates are on the floor.
The data backs up research from the Simon Community shows that some 290,000 people had experienced hidden homelessness in the past 12 months, staying with family or friends, couch surfing or living in unsuitable overcrowded accommodation. These hidden numbers of people finding it impossible to find a home may account for some of the rise in emigration revealed in the most up to data figures from the CSO, though it’s hard to say for sure.
It must add to the prevailing feeling that Irish people don’t seem quite as important to this government as the huge numbers of migrants – many who are not genuine asylum claimants – who are arriving.
Now that distinction – and the overreach by the State in the face of its own persistent failure to provide housing – has been neatly encapsulated by a story emerging from Tipperary about a man in need of accommodation who built his own modular home, only to find that different rules applied.
Tipp FM reports:
A local man will face Tipperary County Council in court this month over issues surrounding a log cabin erected on his family’s land.
Thomas Carberry from Carrick-on-Suir began living in a log cabin last year when he was unable to source other accommodations.
He says he sought planning permission from the council on numerous occasions but failed to receive a response and therefore proceeded with erecting the structure.
Thomas was denied retention planning twice, and had not heard from the council until this week, when he received a summons for court on June 21st for not removing the structure.
Carberry says he was driven to build the log cabin after the council told him he could be waiting 10-15 years for a property. Now he fears that the council will tear his home down.
“I’ll avoid the court if it’s taken down, but if I take it down, they’ve officially made me homeless,” he told the Tipp Today show.
“I’ve lived and worked here most of my life and paid taxes, and I can’t keep a log cabin that’s there because the council couldn’t fulfill their duties of giving me a house, and now they want it removed, but if I came in from another country, it would be handed to me,” he said.
“There is not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t worry about it. Waiting and waiting to see what is going to happen. There is nothing coming and yet in the meantime they are going building these log cabins in Thurles for Ukrainians so how can they turf out people on their own private land but build them wherever they want,” he said.
The councils can be ruthless in this regard, seeking to have homes built without adequate planning demolished even where the property is a family residence built on the owner’s land.
Leaving aside any issues with the log cabin that may not be in the public domain, the issues raised by Mr Carberry go to the heart of how the rule of law is applied – and to how any perception that the law or public policy is being applied unfairly or unequally undermines public trust and confidence.
The right of every person to private property is, in reality, diluted by the requirement to ask for planning permission for develop or changes that you wish you undertake. Given that an agreement has been made where citizens agree to seek that permission so as to uphold the common good, it is vitally important that this requirement is seen to be applied fairly and not in an arbitrary fashion.
In a growing number of cases – local Independent TD, Mattie McGrath, says he now knows of at least ten instances where log cabins have been built – it could be argued that the build was undertaken, on the person’s own land, because the State has failed to provide housing for desperate people.
While most people agree that planning laws serve a valid purpose, it could also be argued that, since the State is willing to grant an exemption for planning permission to build large numbers of modular home for asylum seekers, the same courtesy could also apply to its own people.
Yet, it seems that because a Tipperary man tried to solve his own homelessness crisis by building his own modular home, he must now face the council in court, and also face the possibility of his home being demolished.
A great many comments on social media, asked the perfectly reasonable question as to why the needs of Irish people cannot also be subjected to a grand gesture by the State to waive planning permission for essential housing in a certain set of circumstances.
It appears, as I previously wrote, that the State is taking a battering ram to its own people on these issues. Different rules apply to Irish people – or at least to those who haven’t the privileged position and the deep pockets to take the matters to the courts or to their political connections.
There is, it seems, a hierarchy of priorities for the Irish government, and ordinary Irish people are increasingly finding that appear to be slipping in those rankings. If the State is actively trying to create public resentment, then they are certainly going about it the right way.