Mayo councillor reveals why local government has become dysfunctional

By Dr. Richard Martin

I was browsing through my Facebook feed over Christmas, and I came across an interesting post by Westport Councillor Peter Flynn.

It was titled ‘Quickest way to close down a town: Replace permanent family homes with holiday homes.’

In a lengthy post he outlined how there are housing estates in Louisburgh with occupancy rates between 20-40%.

These holiday homes are lying idle for most of the calendar year during the current housing and rental crisis.

He outlined how Louisburgh could and would benefit more from permanent residency as opposed to the current situation.

It led to a very interesting debate on his Facebook page. Some agreed and some disagreed.

Councillor Flynn is in many ways a maverick within the council chamber.

Never afraid to venture an opinion, he likes to rock the boat and challenge orthodoxy.

I felt it would be good to catch up, so we met in the TF with Alison on a Monday afternoon to flesh it all out.

Richard: What are you up to these days on Facebook causing trouble?

Peter: I wouldn't say trouble, I'd say bringing a serious topic into focus. We're in the midst of a housing crisis and there's no point pretending otherwise.

I suppose the first time it kind of came home to me that we have a ready-made solution here within Mayo was when I canvassed for the local elections in June, went from the far end of Louisburgh out to Killeen and all the way back in towards Westport. The number of empty homes right around the area was mind-boggling to be quite honest.

On my travels, I got to speak to some of the residents there and I'd say to people, like, where's everybody?

And inevitably they would tell you that the vast majority of the houses are unoccupied for most of the year. That is, they're largely holiday homes and the occupancy rates are between 20 and 40 per cent.

Then we had the general election. I did a lot of canvassing for Kiera Keogh. Again, I canvassed a lot of that area out west, beyond Murrisk. I also canvassed up in north Mayo, down around Ballycroy, Bangor Erris area.

And again, it was a similar experience where you had so many empty homes and yet at the same time in Mayo, if you go on to Daft or go into any of the auctioneers, there's nothing available.

So just equating the two, it just doesn't make sense. And, you know, people say, well, why are you picking on Louisburgh? I'm not picking on Louisburgh, but I thought it was just the one area that was so visible and so obvious.

It's on that basis that I came up with the proposal through our Housing Strategic Policy Committee group that we would look at some form of taxation that would either go back into the local community to help sustain the local communities through tidy towns or community futures or the local sports clubs.

At least people are giving something back to the community if they decide to hold on to their homes. And if they don't, well, then it frees up houses for people to live in Louisburgh.

And I think this is not just a Mayo issue. We have so many towns and city centres now in Ireland that are struggling.

I mean, the number of people that are living in our town centres, our city centres, our villages is continuing to decline. And if we want to get real vibrancy and real life back into our town centres, our villages, our city centres, then we need to get people living in them.

And that's, I suppose, part of the reason why I'm talking about this type of proposal. I'm not doing it just to be radical. I just see a ready-made solution.

It's a combination of utilising what we have right now and also building homes and building the right type of homes. And that's really where I come from.

Richard: The core issue with this housing crisis is supply. And there's two ways to supply homes. Build - that's the first.

The other route is increasing the existing stock, which is exactly what you're saying.

Do you think that vacant homes tax should be increased? (Vacant Homes Tax applies to residential properties in use as a dwelling for less than 30 days in a 12-month chargeable period. The 2024 rate of VHT on a property is 5 times the basic rate of Local Property Tax for the property. In Mayo, the average LPT is €220 a year.)

Peter: Absolutely. And that's why I propose that it should start at a base of €2,000 to really focus the mind and then, really, the fairest way to do it is to link the tax to the property value.

The higher the value of the property, the higher the tax that goes with it.

And I think to be honest, 30 days is nonsense.

It should be someone's residence. It can be a long-term tenant's residence, or it could be the owner's residence.

But it should be someone's residence for at least six months of the year and that isn't the way it is at the moment.

We must look at how do we really revitalise our towns, our villages, get people back to living in them, get our businesses up and running.

Again, I use Louisburgh as an example. Not so long ago, Louisburgh had two hotels. Old Head, just down the road, had a hotel.

Richard: Why have they failed, in your opinion?

Peter: Honestly, I don't know.

Richard: Are there too many Airbnb lets? (There are 417 Airbnb lets for May 16 - the bank holiday weekend in Louisburgh.)

Peter: Well, it's definitely a problem.

Richard: Is Airbnb stifling the competition?

Peter: I would say so. Absolutely, it is. If there's no Airbnb, well, they have to go to the hotel then.

And I think, whereas we think of hotels simply as a tourism product, I think hotels are a small industry and it's probably the most vital piece of infrastructure that you can have in any town.

I mean, if you look at Newport, Mulranny, Kiltimagh and Claremorris, the difference that having good hotels in the towns and villages makes.

And I really think people underestimate the value of a hotel, in terms of not just the tourism piece, but in terms of the contribution to the social dynamic within it.

Hotels are needed for funerals, for birthday parties, for christenings, communions, all those other things that go on. And then all of a sudden, they have that financial spin-off.

If you have a good hotel within your location, suddenly the beautician next door, the hairdresser next door, the florist next door, the bar next door all benefit from the spin-off generated.

Richard: Absolutely.

Peter: I honestly do think we need to figure out a way, how do we get locations like that back in operation? And again, I will use Louisburgh as an example, where you have two good hotels in the centre of the town that are now closed.

Richard: Moving on from Louisburgh to Castlebar. McHale Road, Bridget’s Crescent, Marian Row and St. Patrick's Avenue were all council estates.

Why aren't the council getting directly involved in housing?

Peter: I think the single most important reason is because our councils are dysfunctional.

Richard: In what way are they dysfunctional?

Peter: I mean, I go back to town council days. Whether Castlebar, Ballina or Westport, we had a town manager, town clerk and a town engineer. They built estate upon estate upon estate right around the county.

There are three key towns in the county.

They didn't have an army of people in the background.

When you went into a council meeting, you had the three most important people in the room, and everybody was held to account. We've lost all of that now.

I mean, when you went to a council meeting now, you have 30 councillors sitting around a room, you have six or seven directors of service, the chief executive. But none of the key people that are involved in the operational side of things. They'll never appear at those meetings.

So, we never actually get to interact with the people that are going to be the most important people in the operation.

Richard: And who are the key operational people?

Peter: Who's responsible anymore?

I mean, nobody knows, you know. You have a housing unit, a central unit in Swinford.

You have another piece inside in the municipal district office, another piece in Castlebar, but nobody's responsible for anything. And that's where I think we need to get back to strong local government, where the local parties really delivered.

I mean, you think about the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. There was no money. And yet we built some of the finest estates in the country.

You know, we were on our hands and knees back in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, to be honest. And yet we could do that.

But here we are now where we have billions of money flushing around the country. But yet we're struggling. I mean, and again, I do think it goes back to accountability and responsibility.

We just simply don't have that at the moment. We have a big mass of an operation where bureaucracy reigns, where there's always a reason why we can't do something.

And I think we need to go back to the old structures in ways where you have small central councils in their bigger towns.

Richard: You were part of Westport Urban Council. You would have seen how it works.

Peter: I always say I've had 10 years as a town councillor. I've had 10 years as a county councillor. And the contrast is just huge, there's a chasm between the way the two of them worked.

The town council was amazing. There were nine of us sitting around the table. As I say, we had a town manager, town clerk and a town engineer.

We got stuff done. And there was complete focus. Every single item that was on the agenda, we all had an interest.

We all played a part. We all had a full in-depth knowledge of every part of the town, and it worked.

We now have the worst local government system in Europe, where the principle of subsidiarity has gone out the window.

And it's just completely and utterly dysfunctional.

That’s Peter Flynn. Passionate. Vocal. What you see is what you get. I met him in the TF at the local elections count in June. He was elected of course. He was dressed like a man going out to do a triathlon.

We stood at the back of the count centre, and he regaled me with the famous story about ‘Landslide Lenaghan’, who was elected by one third of a vote 25 years ago, and off he went into the crowd to meet his flock.

I wasn’t sure if he was going to do a few squats to limber up.

I met him during the weekend at the count for the GE. He was dressed dapper in a pink shirt. He shirks convention at all times. In my view it’s needed. Too many of the current political class are stiff and starchy. Consumed by fear, in case they may make a faux pas.

Modern politics lacks the colour and drama of the P. Flynn, Haughey era. Haughey's shirts weren’t stiff and starchy. Charvet all the way. Charlie had style whatever else we may say about him.

Harris epitomises vanilla politics. He was never in the bold boy's corner.

Personally, I like originality and flair. Peter Flynn has both.