Lack of housing in rural north Wexford is driving families into urban centres – ‘Villages are like the land time forgot’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

The lack of housing delivery in rural north Wexford has left once thriving villages resembling “the land that time forgot”. And while Gorey and its surrounds continue to expand, local councillors fear that the district’s heartlands will eventually wither and die without government intervention.

Discussing the issue at the September meeting of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District (GKMD) councillors asked for some finite figures when it came to Wexford County Council’s (WCC) plans for the future.

“I would love to know the numbers we have planned for the coming years,” said Councillor Darragh McDonald. “Are are expecting 500 houses in Gorey, one thousand houses? That’s a number every person on the street wants to know.

"It’s not necessarily the houses they’re concerned about, it’s how this is going to affect parking in their area, how it will impact the schools, roads, the infrastructure of the town.”

Given that we remain in the teeth of a housing crisis it’s unlikely that any councillor will turn their nose up at a new housing development in their area. However, Cllr McDonald questioned the wisdom of continuing to build in the urban centres while rural areas experienced decreases in population.

“Gorey is near capacity in terms of its wastewater systems, that’s going to cost millions to upgrade,” he said. “I would rather see expansion in our villages, we’re receiving housing targets from the minister but there has to be control, there has to be logic in this, it’s not the Celtic Tiger again.

"For example, people in Mill Quarter living in the phase one of that project still don’t have a GP and there’s plans for another 500 houses there.”

Cllr McDonald’s Fine Gael party colleague, Anthony Donohue, was in agreement, and noted that the deficit of houses in rural areas was driving prices beyond the means of the average Wexford family.

“There was a housing scheme set up in Kilanerin before the last crash, six houses were built there, and that’s it for the whole village at the moment,” he said. “The starting price for one of those houses is €695,000. There’s no local people going to be able to pay that.

"There’s nothing else being built in the countryside, so the only other option is to push people into the towns. When they move into the towns they lose touch with their communities, their children go to one of the schools in Gorey, they play for a GAA club in town, and the villages suffer.

“If the government is serious about saving those villages it needs to earmark a certain proportion of funds from Uisce Éireann to upgrade the wastewater schemes there. We can keep banging this drum but action needs to be taken at the top level, my fear is that by the time they get to these villages it’ll be too late. The next generation will already be gone.”

With director of services Liz Hore advising that she was scheduled to meet with members of the department of housing in the coming weeks, Cllr Mary Farrell said it was time someone took Uisce Éireann (UE) to task as it continued to ignore the need for upgraded systems in rural Wexford..

“How is the government going to deal with UE?” she asked. “There’s no point in having land we could zone for housing if UE isn’t going to come on board. So how can we force its hand?

“Not everybody wants to live in a town, they’re becoming ghettoised in certain places. Meanwhile there are villages in the district which are like the land that time forgot.”