Simon Harris needs to prioritise guidelines for rural housing, says Mayo local election candidate

A Louisburgh-based local election candidate for Mayo County Council has called on the incoming Taoiseach Simon Harris to prioritise rural housing to give young people a future in rural Ireland.

Chris Maxwell, who is running as an Independent candidate in the Westport Electoral Area, has called on rural housing planning guidelines to be prioritised in a way that ensures young people can stay or return to their rural farms and villages, thereby safeguarding the future of rural Ireland.

“Surely a Taoiseach from rural County Wicklow who served on Wicklow County Council understands the plight of people trying to get planning for one-off housing, and surely, after telling farmers that he will continue to back and champion rural Ireland and the agricultural sector, he will bin the draft plan being promoted by Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan and the Department of Transport?” he asked.

“This draft plan on cutting emissions in the transport sector would see the construction of rural housing discouraged through taxation measures. Total lunacy again from Eamon Ryan who stopped this country making our own peat briquettes and selling turf – but it is okay to import it by the boatload from foreign lands and transport it by truck around Ireland to burn in our own fireplaces,” he said.

“Hopefully his dictating to the communities of rural Ireland is coming to an end. In the middle of a housing crisis trying to stop our young people from building on their own sites in rural Ireland – many who emigrated to earn the price of building a home – shows how out of touch he and this government are.

“I hope the people of Ireland let the three government parties feel their rage and disgust in the upcoming local and European elections as they did in the last ridiculous referendum that they tried to fool us with.”