Young people should be able to build in rural Ireland, according to Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal following his expansion of the First Home Scheme to include self-build properties, Minister O’Brien said "people in rural Ireland should have the same opportunities and should have access to the same schemes".

“If you look at what we've done now with the first home schemes, up to 30% of the value for the home, if you're not using help to buy, is now available for someone to use.

"This was something that was asked of us last year at the Ploughing and we've responded to that and worked to ensure that that is now available," he said.

Planning

In relation to planning permission barriers preventing young people from building in rural Ireland, Minister of State at the Department of Housing Kieran O’Donnell said that this shouldn't be the case.

“We want people to live in rural Ireland. As you're aware, we are currently bringing out an updated rural planning guideline. We expect to go out to public consultation shortly."

Minister O'Donnell said that Government wants people to live in their native areas and to "live in rural Ireland in a sustainable way".

He said the changes to the First Home Scheme will reduce the cost for young people to building outside urban centres.

"That’s very much front and centre. We want people to be living in rural Ireland," he said.

Guidelines

The Department of Housing will also be bringing out revised guidelines on planning permission which will go for public consultation, according to Minister O’Donnell.

“We will then come up with updated guidelines for the local authorities to implement. First and foremost we want people to live in rural Ireland,” he stated.