Rural Housing Guidelines are urgently needed, warns Macra

Macra is calling on the government to deliver the long promised Rural Housing guidelines.

The national voluntary rural youth organisation says the guidelines were originally due to be published prior to Christmas 2022 but were delayed until the second quarter of 2023. 

“The end of quarter two is quickly approaching and there is no sign of the promised Rural Housing guidelines,” said Macra National President Elaine Houlihan.

“Ireland’s rural young people are once again leaving in droves because it is so difficult for them to have a future and build a house in their communities. The presence of Rural Housing guidelines could provide a glimmer of hope that the planning process would not be so prohibitive,” she said.

The Macra president said the difficult planning process has discouraged young people from staying in rural Ireland and has driven young people abroad. 

“We have members who are siblings that have applied for planning in rural communities beside one another and one would get the planning granted and the other would be refused on little or no valid reasoning, this just shows how inconsistent the current planning guidelines are in our rural communities,” Ms Houlihan said.

Macra has consulted its members extensively on planning and housing development over the past two years.  A clear message emerged, they say, that guidelines need to be consistent and they must ensure that those who want to live and work in rural Ireland can do so without endless amounts of red tape and hoops to jump through.

“Macra wants to see these guidelines published before the end of Q2 as promised, so young people can make better informed decisions about staying in rural Ireland. Our future depends on the policies that government puts forward with housing being one of the major issues affecting young people,” added Ms Houlihan.