The urban housing crisis is now hitting rural towns and villages, where low-income farmers cannot afford to compete for land with property developers who are prepared to pay enormous sums for sites for new homes, it was claimed this week. In many rural areas, particularly in west Galway, huge prices are paid for holiday homes where locals cannot afford to buy houses. A series of public meetings to discuss the issue will be held over the next two weeks.
Hosted by Irish Rural Link, a national organisation established as a voice for rural Ireland in 1991, the meetings will assess the level of discontent at second-home or holiday-home ownership in rural areas and the problems which this may cause. Irish Rural Link also wants planning policy in rural areas to be clarified. "We hope to broaden the current housing debate, which is focused on urban areas, and to highlight difficulties that rural areas are experiencing during the current housing crisis," explained Ms Dolores Halloran, a research worker at the group's Galway office. She stated that in some areas of Connemara between 40 and 64 per cent of houses were holiday homes and the price of houses in these areas was eight or nine times what local people could afford to pay for them. "We want to see where it's all going to end." The problem was significant also in Leitrim, but not to the same extent, she added. "People living in these communities are no longer in a position to buy homes in their own areas and this is something we have to look at.
"We feel rural communities can be sustained and developed to keep them alive, by maintaining post offices, train and bus services. If we are looking at a situation where a growing number of the houses are holiday homes, there won't be the same demand for services because we will end up with a collection of houses rather than a thriving community," she said. Ms Halloran also pointed out that spiralling house prices were driving many professional couples into the rural housing market and this too had led to inflated prices for houses in villages. In addition, the farming crisis meant farmers could not compete against investors for land which went up for auction. Ms Halloran said there had been much concern about perceived anomalies in the granting of planning permission. When holiday homes were granted planning permission, members of the local community found it difficult to understand why they should be refused permission, she said.
"This is something that causes a lot of stress for people. There may be legitimate reasons why planning permission is refused in some cases, but we want it thrashed out to see what is the policy around planning in rural areas and why some people get it and more don't. We want that explained for our members."
The first public meeting for all interested parties and rural development groups takes place in the Lake Hotel, Oughterard, on Thursday at 8 p.m. The guest speaker will be economist Mr Kevin Heanue, who will talk on "Second-home ownership in Rural Ireland". Mr Heanue published a report last year on "The affordability gap for housing in peripheral rural areas" and is now continuing with his research on this topic. Irish Rural Link hopes to hold similar meetings in Leitrim, Cork and Tipperary in coming weeks and the conclusions from each session will be published and presented to the relevant Government department and minister.
The schedule for the other meetings is: Glens Centre,
Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, February 22nd - "Derelict houses in rural areas"; Lynch's Lodge, Killarney Road, Macroom, February 23rd - "Planning permission in rural areas"; and the final one takes place in the Anner Hotel, Dublin Road, Thurles, on February 25th - "Social housing in rural areas". All meetings begin at 8 p.m.