‘DEMOUNTABLE HOMES A SOLUTION TO LACK OF RURAL COTTAGES’
“DEMOUNTABLE” homes have been vital where an old house fell into disrepair or became uninhabitable for those aged 50 and 60 and above and who, in no circumstance, would or could leave their own place, Independent Deputy Danny Healy-Rae told the Dáil.
They want to stay in the places they were born and reared, he said. “All these people would provide a site for a demountable home. These units have always provided comfort, a bit of heat, security, and safety from the elements and vermin and they still can.”
As to rural cottages, he said only three have been built in Kerry in the last nine years. From 2016 to 2021, ten are to be built. However, there are 35 to 40 more people on the waiting list for these rural cottages. “These people will provide a site of their own.,” he said. “They want to live near their parents and their family and to work on their farms but the Department has agreed to fund only ten of these up to 2021. Do we have any funding for housing? If the Government does not, I ask the Taoiseach to spell that out. We would all understand. Clearly, these people are providing almost half the cost of housing themselves. They are providing the site. In 2015, the Government announced €62.5 million for housing in Kerry. It never told us by when it would be spent. Will it last until 2030?”
Rural cottages have been an integral part of rural Ireland since the foundation of the State, but in particular since the 1960s. Is this aligned with the famous Project Ireland 2040 where planning permission will only be granted in rural areas if the development does not detract from the greater urban areas? “For instance, Kerry County Council granted permission to a person to build a house on his own place, being a favoured nephew, and it was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by one of these serial objectors,” he said. “An Bord Pleanála came back and said that, at 6 km, where he was proposing to build his house was too far away to go to his place of work. That is a fact.”
In response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Deputy HealyRae might elaborate on “demountable” homes. “It is not a term I am familiar with, but perhaps one with which I should be,” he said.
Specifically, he said €6 billion is being provided for investment in housing between now and 2021. “That is an enormous investment in housing between now and 2021. It will deliver 110,000 extra social housing units for people to live in between now and 2021. That is a huge uplift in investment.”
Separately, he said Project Ireland 2040 is a plan for a country with 1 million more people living here by 2040, with most of that growth happening outside of Dublin, the other cities growing twice as fast as Dublin and an extra 200,000 people living in rural Ireland.
Later he added that he was informed by one of his colleagues that “demountable” homes are prefabricated homes, “which is what they are called in Fingal and they can be constructed on site”. THERE is an issue in the Cork-Kerry region which has the longest waiting list in the country for cataract operations, at up to 60 months from the time of referral to the carrying out of the operation, Fianna Fáil Deputy John Brassil told the Dáil. One can often wait up to 24 or 36 months before even being seen.
He said people with such difficulties attend his clinic on a weekly basis. “It is the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, who has to deal with the social aspects that result from, for example, a person who was once able to drive to the local town now being unable to do so, with all of the related isolation issues. This matter needs to be tackled. Given all of the reports and offerings, for example, from the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the Association of Optometrists Ireland, there is a potential solution, but elements are falling between the stools.”
In reply, Health Minister Simon Harris said people were waiting for far too long and there will be more progress this year. “The investment in the new Nenagh clinic will see activity ramped up as we increase staff numbers there,” he said.
“The clinic will see up to ten cases a week for the first 12 weeks and 30 cases a week for the remaining 12 weeks. In 2018 the service will carry out up to 500 cataract procedures. From next year, it could carry out 2,500 additional cataract procedures per annum. The level of activity proposed in Nenagh will not just meet demand in the Mid-West, it will also provide additional capacity to support patients from counties Limerick, Laois, Kerry, Clare, Offaly, Kilkenny and Tipperary. There is much more we can do in dealing with this matter and I look forward to making progress on it.” THE result of the Referendum on the Eight Amendment is not a time for any form of triumphalism, Fianna Fáil Senator Ned O’Sullivan told the Upper House.
“There is still a sizeable minority who do not share the winning view, if we want to call it the winning view,” he said. “It is important to remember though that school of thought was, once upon a time in this country, a significant majority. It is now a minority. There is a change there. Something huge has definitely happened. It is seismic and on the scale of the decriminalisation of homosexuality.”
“Many Oireachtas Members of my party - a majority - voted ‘No’,” he said. “That was their entitlement. I had no problem with that. I worked on the ‘ Yes’ side with members of all parties and my Fianna Fáil colleagues worked on the ‘No’ side with members of all parties as well. That is a grand thing and I have no problem with it. However, I do want to say very clearly today that we have moved on now.”