Time to revisit development levies on young people - Mayo councillor

DEVELOPMENT levies on young people building homes need to be revisited.

The observation was made by Councillor Johnny O'Malley at a Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting, where he said we need to be doing more to encourage people to live in rural areas.

“I am totally against the development levy on young people building a home,” he stated. They find it hard to get the money together, with any house now costing €300,000 to build, and when they get planning they have to pay a development levy. This was a government thing, he accepted, but it was wrong and they shouldn't have these levies.

“We should be encouraging more than we are for people to live in rural areas,” he said. We should be encouraging rural shops, post offices, schools and garda stations.

If we had these things, we wouldn't have half the trouble in towns that we are having, Councillor O'Malley continued. It was hard to come into any town in Ireland now and feel safe, and they had seen what had happened the two off-duty gardaí in Dublin recently.

There should be more gardaí on the beat and more rural gardaí and have more of a rural community.

“We don't have to have everyone in towns,” he stated.