Hopes fading in Galway as councillors dismiss Government’s new housing plan – ‘In 2030 we will still be talking about it’
The conversation of land and housing in Galway shows no sign of easing, with Ballinasloe councillors warning they cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel that the Government’s new National Housing Plan attempts to switch on.
The plan, published this week, promises “unprecedented investments” in infrastructure and pledges to deliver more than 300,000 homes between 2025 and 2030. It includes an average of 12,000 social homes annually and 15,000 affordable supports each year through the Starter Homes programme.
But Ballinasloe Councillor Declan Geraghty expressed little faith in the delivery during a district meeting this month.
“We can talk and talk and talk about [housing] and nothing is being done. In my opinion in 2030 we will still be sitting here talking about it,” he told a district meeting.
Bringing his hard-hitting statement to a lighter note, he joked: “Well I might not be here!”, as most of his colleagues chuckled in agreement to the distance of the 2030 target.
Opening Pandora’s Box for creative solutions, Cllr Geraghty went on to back MEP Ciaran Mullooly’s recent call for easing planning restrictions in rural Ireland.
He argued that most rural homes are self-sufficient and that families wishing to build on their own land should not be discouraged.
“If the planning authorities and local authorities were really serious about the housing crisis then they would open it up,” he said.
The Housing for All plan, published in September 2021, set a target of 33,000 homes per year throughout the country. This newest plan reflects figures nearly 50pc higher for the 2025–2030 period.
Between 2022 and 2024, more than 60pc of the social housing target was delivered in Galway, with over 1,000 new homes built across the county and city. These included local authority builds, turnkey projects, affordable housing and Part V units.
Councillor Michael Connolly admonished planning offices, questioning if they “realize how important zoning is.” He argued that useful land is being left idle because owners refuse to develop.
“There are lands out there who don’t have a hope in hell in being developed because the landowners do not want that,” he said, urging the local authority to facilitate zoning to open further developments.
Councillor Alan Harney, however, struck a more cautious tone. He said he was “not sure” he agreed with colleagues on zoning control or free-for-all permissions in rural areas, but acknowledged the radical need for something different, and something that works.