Sinn Féin TD says the 'red tape' must be removed when it comes to housing

Michael Bolton

A Sinn Féin TD has said their housing plan will help remove the red tape involved in housing.

Mayo TD Rose Conway-Walsh was speaking as Sinn Féin launched their proposals on housing ahead of the General Election on November 29th.

In the party's housing plan, they say they will build 300,000 homes over the next five years.

On Up Front with Katie Hannon on Monday night, housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said Sinn Féin would introduce a scheme to provide 60,000 affordable homes, and criticised the Government's help to buy scheme.

Speaking to Breakingnews.ie, Ms Conway-Walsh said the "red tape" needs to be removed when it comes to housing.

"What we are doing is addressing the supply side. The way we are doing that is giving a lot of the responsibility to the approved housing bodies and local authorities.

"It will get rid of a lot of the red tape. What is happening now is if Mayo County Council decide tomorrow to build on this greenfield site, it can be years before anything will be done on that land by the time you get through all the bureaucracy.

"We need to cut the bureaucracy, and also the local authority will know what the demand is in the different local authority areas in the different counties.

"We have the affordable home scheme as well, which will address the situation where people are caught. If you are a family of four, and you are earning more than €34,000 a year, you are not approved for social housing.

"You are caught in that trap that the banks are not looking at you because you are not earning enough, and the local authority won't look at you because you are earning too much."

Ms Conway-Walsh said she hopes Sinn Féin's housing plan would bring young people back to the country who have emigrated.

The Mayo TD spoke of her own son, who has moved to London as an example of people who have had to leave the country due to the housing crisis.

"My own son has just graduated and he has moved to London. Not because he couldn't get a job in London, he had offers, but because he was faced with the choice he could either live with his parents, or live independently.

"The only way he can afford to live independently, is to go to London. He is sharing in London. He has a nice apartment with two others in Fulham that is affordable for the wages he is getting.

"If you look across this county, and across Erris where I am from, every second young person is gone to Australia for the same reason. They cannot get housing near where they want to work.

"I want for those people to be able to come back. Many of those people are from rural areas, they have to be able to build on their own land, that is a huge issue."

The Mayo TD also criticised comments made by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary on teachers at a Fine Gael event over the weekend.

“The Dail is full of teachers – nothing wrong with teachers, I love teachers, but I wouldn’t generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done,” he said.

Ms Conway-Walsh said she was disappointed in Mr O'Leary and the Fine Gael members present at the event for their reaction to the comments.

"I was absolutely appalled, not so much of Michael O'Leary because I wouldn't expect anything less, he makes those outrageous comments.

"To hear the sniggering by the Fine Gael people in that room, I am sure there was elected representatives there as well as party members, if that was in my party I would be ashamed.

"Teachers have done such a phenomenal job, particularly in the last 10 years, in what they have had to deal with in terms of the mental health of children and breakdown of families.

"There is children going to school in this county that are homeless, that are in temporary accommodation. They go to school, and teachers have to put all those pieces together.

"To see a Fine Gael gathering sniggering that if you want a job done, don't ask a teacher to do it when teachers are multitasking and burnt out in the jobs they have to do.