No political will to end land permission windfall

Tom Parlon, director general of the Construction Federation of Ireland (CFI), said in an RTÉ radio interview that land was half the cost of a new house and that hard-pressed buyers of new houses were paying for land for social housing.

He was silent on the obvious: buyers of new houses pay all the levies imposed by local authorities for water, waste water, roads, lighting, landscaping and that wonderfully vague term, ‘amenities’.

These authorities provide scant supervision of compliance with regulations regarding planning permission, fire, etc, as many buyers have found to their cost. The windfall gains to a landowner from the granting of planning permission are a problem in Ireland, as disclosed in the Mahon Tribunal. These gains are the cause of the obscene cost to us all of the land for the phantom prison in north Dublin. A farm one minute, gold mine the next?

Just like the John McNulty saga, the solution is a new politics. Is there anyone out there who can deliver that, for starters?

Former attorney generals spooked voters into keeping the ‘social welfare’ for failed politicos that is the Senate.

So a referendum to alter the property rights in the Constitution would probably fail, as well. Perhaps buyers of new houses might get a large grant (EU transfer) from our new commissioner, under set-aside rules.

T Murphy

Shamrock Drive

Muskerry Estate

Ballincollig

Cork