A Mayo County Councillor has proposed a motion to end the “planning loophole” for wealthy IPAS developers, who he says are able to “side step entirely” planning regulations around the country – whilst others, including many families, are forced to wait years.
Aontú councillor, Paul Lawless, who was elected in the local elections in June, says that the situation is “unfair” – telling local radio station Midwest Radio that he believes local people are “facing an emergency situation” in terms of housing. Cllr. Lawless said that the proposal has gained strong support from colleagues in the Council, with fellow councillors unanimously backing the motion.
“It was supported unanimously in the Council,” Cllr. Lawless told Gript, adding: “None of the councillors objected to it.”
Cllr. Lawless emphasised the “stark contrast between how the system treats ordinary citizens versus wealthy developers.”
“It’s extraordinary that we allow wealthy developers to bypass the planning system entirely, while ordinary people in this country face endless planning restrictions and delays. Just last week, a family contacted me.
“They’ve been waiting for years to get planning permission for their home, at huge personal cost. Meanwhile, their rent has doubled in the past year alone. Their application to build a family home has been delayed over and over again,” he told Gript.
“It’s an unfair situation. The fact that we have wealthy developers, who in many cases, have no interest in the local communities, who are receiving millions of euros of taxpayers money. And yet, they are able to side-step entirely the planning and regulations around planning in the county,” the Claremorris Councillor said.
Cllr. Lawless said that he recently received a call from a young man who has been faced with “endless amounts of bureaucracy and delays” and “years in the An Bord Pleanala planning system.”
“And meanwhile, the cost of actually building that home has now increased by around €200,000,” Cllr. Lawless told MidWest radio.
“His rent has doubled within that time as well. And there is an emergency for our own people who don’t want, necessarily, any help from the State – who are trying to build their own home on their own land.”
“We have a totally inequitable and unacceptable situation at the moment, where some very wealthy people who are building IPAS centres, at huge cost to the Government, are being allowed to blatantly flout planning laws,” said Cllr Lawless.
Cllr. Lawless said that constituents had been met with “endless amounts of bureaucracy and red tape.”
In September, meanwhile, it emerged that 65 houses had been built without securing planning permission on an IPAS site. The houses, built on the site of the Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village, Kippure Estate, Manor Kilbride, Blessington, County Wicklow, were not removed despite instructions from the council to do so. The site, owned by Goldstein Properties Icav and managed by Seefin Events Unlimited, currently houses approximately 200 international protection applicants in other buildings.
As Gript reported in May, Wicklow County Council’s enforcement division ordered that 14 stone masonry clad buildings and 51 dwelling houses be removed from the site within 16 weeks of the 13th of May. It was the second enforcement notice received by the owners in respect of the development. Local Cllr. Gerry O’Neill, speaking to Gript, described the situation as “absolutely outrageous.”
An application had been made to An Bord Pleanála by Goldstein Properties Icav and Seefin Events Unlimited Company in respect of the development at Kippure. The application asks whether the development “is or is not development or is or is not exempted [from planning laws] development”.
In July, it was also reported that the Coolock Crowns Paints IPAS site, the source of continued controversy, was previously turned down for planning permission for housing and hotels. Many commentators and some opposition politicians have blasted the government’s decision to pass a law which means that such sites can now be used to house asylum seekers without any planning permission.”
Speaking recently on the motion relating to an overhaul of planning permission for IPAS sites, Cllr. Lawless said: “It’s simply unfair that we have, on the other side of that, a situation and we have introduced a loophole to allow wealthy accommodation providers – who can essentially convert office blocks and warehouses and sports halls, etc, without a single line of the detail in terms of the proposal ever appearing on an ob board plenona website, or indeed in any local authority like the Mayo County Council Planning Search system.”
Cllr. Lawless said the government had essentially introduced a circumvention, essentially, “which allows accommodation for IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Service) to bypass the planning system entirely.”
“We’ve gone beyond an emergency situation now,” he told Midwest Radio. “I do think we need to revisit it, and we do need to recognise that there is an emergency situation in terms of housing for all our citizens. I understand from a constituent who I was called a number of months ago, who essentially is being forced to remove a temporary structure on his own land to try and solve his own housing emergency.
“Meanwhile, we have seen hundreds of temporary units for Ukrainians which are allowed to happen without planning permission.”
Cllr. Lawless said that the motion seeks to “bring parity” and “equalise the situation” for all citizens.
“The planning system is an important system. It is important for the concept of a participatory democracy. The idea that all citizens should be updated and to know what is happening in their community. And equally, to be able to engage in that process. The loophole that the government has introduced for wealthy accommodation providers is deeply divisive, and I do think it is undermining the trust in the system,” he said.
The Mayo Councillor says he is “pleased” to have the support of council colleagues in relation to the motion, saying that the Council has called on Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, to “equalise the situation for all citizens,” asserting that “all citizens should be treated equally in the planning system.”
Cllr. Lawless said that councillors have called on Minister O’Brien to remove all planning circumvention. He says this will allow communities to be treated “with the respect they deserve,” so that local people are “aware of what’s happening with regards to their own communities.”
“This is standard practice for every other proposal; this is not a radical proposal whatsoever,” he said.
“I do think the government’s introduction of the loophole for a very specific and very wealthy section of society, and it’s well documented across the media that many of these developers are buying up warehouses and sports halls and so on, and are receiving millions of euros of taxpayers’ money. Many of these companies as well are actually registered outside of the State. And yet these companies and developers are allowed to sidestep a critically important component of the planning system.”
The Aontú councillor added:“And at the same time, when we are pushing our own people into further and further bureaucracy; families being held up for several years to build on their own land. The system of planning needs to be looked at. We need to address the issues. But allowing one class of people to bypass the planning system entirely is not the solution.”
It follows the passing of a separate motion by Mayo County Council in January, whereby the council unanimously voted to call on its staff to “immediately” cease all cooperation with the Department of Integration, until an agreed strategy is in place regarding the housing of migrants seeking asylum in the county.
Politicians in Mayo are not the first to focus on the difficulty faced by many trying to build homes. Speaking in the Dáil last month, Deputy Mattie McGrath also raised the issue of planning permission in a heated exchange between Rural TDs and some of those on government benches. The Independent accused the government and State-funded NGO An Taisce of “actively making it harder for people to live and have families in rural Ireland.”
Referring to the ongoing housing crisis, McGrath continued: “What else will Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael say when they go to the doors of the people of rural Ireland, who cannot build a henhouse, a house for their children or a farm development? Fianna Fáil will blame the Greens and Fine Gael will blame Fianna Fáil for the damage they have done, but the people are sick and tired of this.”