Finn calls on Dillon to deal with ‘ridiculous’ cost of building a house

INDEPENDENT county councillor Richard Finn has called for urgent action to deal with the cost of building a new house.

Cllr Finn was speaking to The Mayo News after welcoming the appointment of Alan Dillon TD, as Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning.

The Knock-based representative, who is running in the Claremorris Local Electoral Area, said that tax breaks would not address the ‘ridiculous’ amount of tax associated with building a new house.

Cllr Finn called on Minister Dillon to relax planning regulations and reduce the tax burden for building new houses.

Minister Dillon recently announced an extension of the waiver for local authority development contributions until the end of this year and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and waste water connection charges until the beginning of October.

“And while Alan Dillon can’t solve the housing crisis on his own, he can have a huge impact in two areas that will go a long way to making home ownership more accessible and affordable; the first is to reduce the amount of money the state takes from the building of a new house,” began Cllr Finn.

“According to the Irish House Builders Association, on average, forty percent of the cost of building a new house goes to the exchequer. That includes VAT, levies and PAYE/RPSI. That’s €100,000 on a €250,000 house.  That’s a ridiculous amount of money to be taking from a couple trying to buy a home. No wonder houses are not affordable.

 “The wage levels in the west of Ireland are, in many cases, too low, to qualify the applicant for a mortgage, at current house prices. A person or a couple starting out, are facing an impossible situation,” he added.

“A generation ago, people built homes in rural Ireland. Not just in towns, but in the countryside too. It was easy to get planning permission, and houses were affordable. As a result, the countryside was well-populated, and schools were full. The lifestyle was healthy. People weren’t under the financial pressure they are now. One income could support a mortgage.”

_{Cllr Richard Finn}

Cllr Finn added that rural dwelling had been ‘demonised’ by government policy and claimed it was ‘very difficult’ to get planning permission to build in rural Ireland.

Mayo County Council has granted a total of 389 planning permissions for single houses in the 2023-2024 period. It refused 5 percent of the 1,264 planning applications it received in 2023.

“Schools are closing. GAA and other sporting organisations are struggling to field teams. Government policy is driving people into shoebox apartments and housing estates where all the houses are identical,” said Cllr Finn.

“People wanting to build new houses, be they individuals or couples on the one hand, or property developers on the other, are faced with a myriad of costs that make the process uneconomic. It is more expensive to build a house in Ireland than in any other country in the world, when you factor everything in.

“I am calling on the new minister, Alan Dillon, to relax planning guidelines, and to work with [Ministers] Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe, to reduce the state’s take on house building. There was never a better opportunity to do so, than now [with] a new Taoiseach and a new Minister.”