RURAL Ireland Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue has told the Dáil that the Government has not delivered for the people of County Limerick.
According to the Banogue politician, all they have received is “promises, promises and more promises”.
Speaking during a debate on the Rent Reduction Bill, he hit out that people need homes and not empty words.
“The inflation taxation the Government has taken off everyone is now to be given out to the people and the Government will say it is giving them something off. It is waiving planning permission fees, which I welcome, for people who can build.
“We sat at a committee hearing yesterday, which the Minister of State attended, and heard about the failure of this Government and the previous one, and failures going back 38 years. I named a councillor who brought to the attention of the Dáil and the Government that a sewerage system was needed. That councillor is now retiring and the Government has not delivered it,” Deputy O’Donoghue declared.
“People need to rent and need houses to be built. I would love for developers, the council, or anyone else to build houses in County Limerick and to put roofs over people’s heads but they cannot because of the failure of this Government and previous Governments to invest in the counties and rural areas.”
Deputy O’Donoghue went on to say that all the funding the Government delivered in the last two years has mainly gone to the city.
“Look at the local authorities — 90 per cent of funding went to the city and ten per cent went to the county. The Minister of State is originally from County Limerick. Do not forget the people of County Limerick or the people in counties all around Ireland. The Government has let us down.
“The Independents are the only ones who have stood up and told the Government about the failure of infrastructure.
“If we have infrastructure, we will build houses but the Government does not give the funding so we cannot do it. Wake up and look after the people of the counties. They are real people too,” he added.
In response, Limerick TD and Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Kieran O’Donnell, said that ultimately it must be viable for a builder to build and it must be at a price that is affordable for the person to purchase.
“We are bringing in the cost-rental scheme. 600 of those units are already up and running and we have another 1,000 in the pipeline. This new scheme we have announced is now being worked on by a group. We want to see the fast-tracking of cost-rental schemes by local authorities and by the Land Development Agency,” he concluded.
