Housing Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Ryan O'Meara (FF), Tipperary North

If I consider a young person or couple building a home for the first time in a rural part of my constituency outside of the villages or towns - for example someone building a house outside Toomyvara village, in a rural part of the parish, or outside Cloghjordan, Ballynahinch or Ardcrony - they will not get a footpath or public water most probably. They certainly will not be connected into any form of sewage system or wastewater mains system and they will not get any public lighting. As far as I am concerned, the development levy, particularly on one-off rural homes, is essentially a tax for the privilege of building on one's own land. I fully appreciate the importance of funding local authorities and I actually believe we need greater levels of funding for local authorities through central Government but I believe the current levy on one-off rural homes is making it more expensive at a time when costs are already so high for those young couples to build their own homes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19