A chara, – The Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy continues to try and scapegoat local authorities for the Government's failure to address the housing crisis (News, February 1st). He argues that transferring decisions for schemes of more than 100 homes to An Bord Pleanála would speed up delivery. First, in spite of requests, his department has failed to provide any evidence that local authorities were delaying such schemes, and second, since the transfer, there is no evidence that this decision has contributed to the greater supply of housing. The only result has been to remove local democratic input into large-scale developments.
The Minister complains about politicians who object to housing developments. I share his concern about “vexatious complaints” but legitimate worries expressed by local elected representatives over the impact of certain developments on the local environment or on existing infrastructure, or concerning the record of a particular developer, do need to be heard.
He also needs to realise that part of his job title is also Minister for Local Government. We don’t have local government in Ireland, we have local administration. Mr Murphy’s department micromanages everything, including local area plans. One aspect of this is that if a local authority wants to build housing in its area, it will take four stages of approval from his department lasting two years before there is a shovel in the ground. There has been little progress on this.
I would much rather the Minister worked with local councils to try solve the housing crisis, but it is clear he has been captured by his department’s narrative of blaming local authorities. They will need to work out though that once they have finally removed all powers from local government, who do they blame next? – Is mise,
Cllr MALCOLM BYRNE,
(Fianna Fáil),
Gorey,
Co Wexford.