Developers ‘hoarding residential land’ in Rosslare as Europort prepares to create 2,000 new jobs

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

With Rosslare Europort continuing to expand and up to 2,000 new jobs expected to be created there in the coming years, the question has been asked as to how the small rural village which surrounds the port will cope with the increased demand for housing.

At the July meeting of Wexford County Council (WCC) an update was provided on the progress of a County Development Plan which local councillors believe is no longer meeting the demands of Rosslare Harbour.

However, with some land in the village already zoned for residential use, Cllr Ger Carthy asked whether the owners of said land could be forced to “use it or lose it” by WCC.

“I don’t think there’s anything stopping us, under material contravention, in telling developers to either use it or lose it,” he said. “There’s a substantial number of developers who are willing to get going and there’s others who are hoarding land; five years is a significant length of time to be sitting on land which is zoned for residential use.”

In planning law, a material contravention occurs when a proposed development significantly deviates from the objectives outlined in a local development plan. And Cllr Carthy believed the inaction of those “hoarding land” in the Rosslare district was grounds enough to issue legal proceedings.

“This is about the future of the county, not just our children, but for generations to come,” he said. “We need to light a fire under these developers, if they have residential zoned land and it doesn’t commence work very soon we need to lose them.”

Having been informed by senior planner Diarmuid Heuston that a material contravention could not currently be issued to the developers in question, Cllr Carthy said the council’s planning department thus needed to “move whatever blocks are in the way to get this going”.

Published in 2022, the Wexford County Development Plan sets out a number of key objectives for WCC across housing, tourism, infrastructure, and economic development. The report for Year Two of the plan shows “significant residential development" in Rosslare Harbour and Kilrane with 14 new houses completed and 83 housing units granted on lands zoned for village centre and lands zoned for residential development.

Looking to the future of Rosslare Harbour, chief executive Eddie Taaffe said the council was awaiting updated housing targets from the Minister for Housing, James Browne TD, and would adjust its approach accordingly.

“We’ll try and reach those targets where there’s a particular need, try and align them for the maximum chance of delivery,” he said. “We’re already doing that, already assessing it, and that will feed into the overall plan.”

Cllr Lisa McDonald then reminded Mr Heuston that, upon the publication of the County Development Plan in 2022, a proviso had been included for Rosslare Harbour.

“You said if there was significant investment in Rosslare Harbour you would revisit the plan and vary it accordingly,” she said. “You gave that commitment to myself and Cllr Carthy at the time. Now we know there is going to be investment in the Europort which will bring thousands of jobs to the area, if you see an influx of that scale to an area do you have the power to vary the plan? There’s serious investment coming our way and we need to react.”

“We did say we would look at Rosslare Harbour if there were changes,” agreed Mr Heuston, “the question for us now is what is the fastest way of getting houses built, there are different proposals we have to look at.”