Sinn F\u00e9in spokesperson on Rural Affairs, Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Conor D. McGuinness TD, has criticised the Government\u2019s new Our Rural Future 2026\u20132031 strategy for failing to adequately address the housing crisis facing rural communities.<\/p>\n
Deputy McGuinness said the Government\u2019s own figures highlighted the scale of the problem, and the\u00a0strategy launched this evening falls short of what is needed.<\/p>\n
Teachta McGuinness said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s own consultation makes the priorities of rural communities clear. More than half of respondents ranked housing provision among their top five concerns, while generational renewal emerged as the single biggest concern for the future of rural Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know why. A generation of young people is voting with their feet, leaving the communities where they grew up and where they would dearly love to build a home, raise a family and build a future. The housing crisis is central to that challenge, yet this strategy fails to offer the response rural communities need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot expect rural communities to thrive if young people cannot afford a home, cannot secure planning permission to build one, or have no realistic option of living near their families and communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have consistently raised the lack of attention given to rural housing in the previous strategy and called for a stronger response in this new iteration. It is deeply disappointing that the Government has again failed to meet the scale of the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strategy refers to housing delivery, vacant property refurbishment and future planning policy, but says little about affordable housing for young families and nothing meaningful about service sites for local people who want to build their own homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe GAA\u2019s No One Shouted Stop report has highlighted the challenges facing rural communities as younger people move away and populations age. We need practical measures to help people remain in the communities where they grew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cRural Ireland needs a housing policy that addresses affordability, planning barriers and the lack of available sites. Without that, we risk losing another generation of young people and families from our communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s consultation has identified the problem. It must now explain how its strategy will deliver the housing opportunities rural communities urgently need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in spokesperson on Rural Affairs, Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Conor D. McGuinness TD, has criticised the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-667147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}