“If you can CPO a house to knock it down to build a road, then surely you can CPO a house for a family to live in it?”

It may be an extreme view, but it is one that Dunquin native Dáithí de Mórdha feels may be required to sustain his west Kerry community.

Listen to "'There are more houses than people'" on Spreaker.

“There are around 180 of us living here permanently and there are about 190 houses. That’s more houses than people,” he explains.

“In the constitution it states that the right to private property is protected, except in cases where there is a massive public need and I would argue that if people don’t have housing, I imagine that is a public need.”

A house demolished as part of the N86 road improvement scheme.

While some cannot leave rural areas fast enough, there are others who wish to put down roots where they grew up. This is common in parishes and townlands throughout the country, but securing a home where you grew up is challenging – something Dáithí and his contemporaries found out when they got caught up in the tangled web of planning permission rules.

“In all the spiel from local authorities saying they want to sustain communities, if they are denying people from living in their areas, that isn’t sustaining communities,” says the Kerry man.

“The council tells us that it grants more planning applications than it turns down. That looks true on paper, but in pre-planning meetings people are being told that you will never, ever get planning there, so don’t even bother applying.”

In pre-planning meetings people are being told that you will never, ever get planning there, so don’t even bother applying

He recalls a period when he and three of his contemporaries had all applied for permission to build in Dunquin.

“All locals and either engaged, married or had families, and we all had planning denied,” he says.

“At the same time you had six or seven summer houses being built by developers. Thankfully, we all got there in the end, but it wasn’t easy. I’m just using this as my example, there are communities like this all over rural Ireland.”

Empty houses

He says Kerry county council is now reluctant to give out planning permission because it was too permissive during the boom.

Of the houses in Dunquin, 57% are empty for most of the year.

“Most of the houses around here are holiday homes, the vast majority empty for most of the year. Now there are great people who spend up to a third of the year in Dunquin and they do contribute to the community.

“Call back here in winter and of the 50 houses you see up on the hill, you might only see 10 with lights in the windows.”

”Call back here in winter and of the 50 houses you see up on the hill, you might only see 10 with lights in the windows,” says Dáithí de Mórdha.

At the same time, locals find it difficult to build a house.

Locals are now paying the price for all the ribbon development of mainly holiday homes that took place during the Celtic Tiger years.

“I understand the logic of why the council wants to control where houses are built now. You can’t have houses scattered around the country without rhyme or reason, so it wants to create an urban area around the crossroads.

“It also wants people to move into Dingle. Now there are two problems with that. Number one, we are from here, we’re not from Dingle. This [Dunquin] is our community and this is where we want to live.

“The second thing is, if you are a farmer’s son or daughter and your land is not zoned for development, where are you going to get the money to buy in the areas zoned for development around here?”

Vicious cycle

At present, the average price of a three-bedroom house in Co Kerry is €140,000, but west of Dingle it is €250,000, making buying a house prohibitive to many in the locality.

“It’s a vicious cycle. There are very few well-paid jobs back here and if you don’t have a well-paid job, you won’t get a mortgage. If you won’t get a mortgage, you won’t be able to buy a house and you won’t get planning permission because there are so many houses.”

The average price of a three-bedroom house in Co Kerry is €140,000, but west of Dingle it is €250,000.

It has been put up to Dáithí that it was the locals themselves that sold the land for the holiday homes.

He doesn’t disagree.

“If you had someone walking on the road in the mid-1990s onwards, handing you €100,000 for a half-acre site, what would you do? If you had kids in education or a mortgage to pay, you wouldn’t blame them for taking it.”

Employment challenges

Necessity is forcing many to move away from the area or endure longer commutes to work.

“A lot of people want to live here, but there is no employment and there is no planning permission. If the locals don’t have work here and they can’t build their houses here, what will keep them in Dunquin?” he asks.

Tourism is an advantage which inhabitants of west Kerry have over other rural communities.

But it also has its drawbacks, as Dáithí explains.

“During the summer you can get €1,000/week on short-term letting, rather than having a tenant at €1,000/month in a long-term let. That’s people’s right to do, but it is putting massive pressure on communities. It’s very frustrating.”

Future hopes

The Gaeltacht native looks to the future with a mix of hope and trepidation.

“Sometimes you get downhearted. But then you see the kids in the school and there is hope.

“People would laugh at it, but there are over 30 children in the school, 10 of them started this year. It’s the largest number since 1935. But will they be in a position to live here when they are older, or will they even be allowed to live here?” he reflects.

“Things are amplified when you talk about the Irish language. We’re as healthy as you can be from a language point of view, but if you take away the opportunity from the next generation of kids that are in school or college to come back here and raise their own families, then you could lose the language in a whole generation.

“The whole place becomes a retirement village.”