FF MEP: Let’s overhaul Ireland’s lethargic planning system

The next Government should radically alter the planning and permitting processes in Ireland’s housing system, an MEP has said.

Fianna Fáil MEP for Ireland South Billy Kelleher said he has met and engaged with homebuilders and developers over recent weeks who outlined that, on average, it takes longer for a new housing development to go through the planning process than it does for the physical homes to be actually built.

He said: “The reform of the Planning Act helped in recent years, but we need to go further. I worry that the planned investment in water infrastructure will not deliver tangible results due to delays in permitting and planning. This is an essential component of delivering homes in regional and rural Ireland.”

The Fianna Fáil MEP continued: “I have repeatedly called for Ireland’s lethargic planning and permitting system to be overhauled. It is holding us back as a society. Now is the time to do it; a new government with a new, stronger mandate must grasp this issue, and finally address it.”

He added: “There are many in Ireland who would lay the blame on the EU for the slow and lethargic systems we deal with in Ireland. This is far from reality.

“The gold-plating of regulation in Ireland is a decision of Irish authorities. Over the last five years, I’ve seen how other member states apply European regulations, and they are not as onerous as they are in Ireland. We have a generational chance, with a new government, to change how we build in Ireland. We owe it to our people to use this opportunity to secure their housing future,” he concluded.