Despite the unprecedented housing crisis, there have been 171 council properties in Kerry vacant for between two and four years with 33 vacant houses in Killarney alone and three in Gneeveguilla, Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae told the Dáil.
Speaking during a debate on the ring-fencing of council development levies, he said there is a great deal of talk about the need to build houses in Dublin but Kerry cannot be overlooked and the council should allocate the vacant homes before deciding to build more.
“We have ridiculous things happening where there is serviced land in Killarney which won’t be built on because it’s not in the current zoning and then we have the scenario where we have a local farmer, who never asked for it, having his land zoned, though he wants to continue farming,” he said.
Deputy Healy-Rae said the imposition of levies on those building their own homes is a very contentious issue and the imposition of such fees, connection charges and service charges is actually costing almost half of the price of building a house and this is stopping young people from building their own homes.
“It is costing €140,000 and €150,000 between levies, connection fees and VAT and this is stopping people and it is stopping small developers.
“Connection fees from Irish Water are very exorbitant and costly for developers to put in a sewerage connection and water connection for a small number of houses,” he said.
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