Doherty calls for lifting of ban on building houses along major Donegal road
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00:00Minister, I'm raising an issue of national importance and national policy
00:03in relation to my own constituency. It's an issue that we've raised on many
00:07occasions down throughout the years and it's one of huge frustration in Donegal
00:10that this issue is still not dealt with and it is the national policy which
00:14restricts the one-off building of homes accessing the N56 National Secretary
00:19Road. Minister, you may be aware as Minister for the Gaeltacht that this road
00:23stretches right through the heart of the Gaeltacht across a great
00:27portion of County Donegal. It stretches right from Donegal town clockwise right
00:33through Letterkenny and it passes through towns like Mount Charlis, Argyran,
00:37Glenties, up through Dunloe, Fulcarra, out to Dunfanaghig, Creasla, through
00:43Kilmacraine until it reaches Letterkenny again. It's the spine of
00:46Donegal. The policy has caused heartache for those who wish to build on their own
00:51family, on their own family lands close to the home, close to where they grew up
00:56often in small patches of land that have been where people have strived to
01:00maintain for years to allow their children to build homes in their own
01:04communities. Now they're finding it over the years more and more difficult to do
01:08that because of this national policy which prevents the building of homes
01:12which lead on to the N56. Minister, this has resulted in children of people who've
01:19contacted me not being able to return home from Australia in particular. It has
01:23resulted in some cases, I can tell you, of people who've gone to Australia
01:27because they can't get homes, they can't buy or build in their own
01:32county and it has resulted in huge financial issues for others which means
01:36because the land that they have, their family land, is sterilised for the
01:40purpose of housing and they have to fork out 50, 60 and more thousand euro for a
01:45site. Minister, this has caused heartache for those who wish to build on their own family, as I've said,
01:50the Gaelic language centre is the biggest in the country and it's in this town, Friidh,
01:54this town, and you don't have to have a plan to build a house on this town
02:00and that puts a lot of pressure on families who want to take their children to
02:08Gaelic in the Gaelic language and where they can find Gaelic. Minister, as you'll know
02:12the reducing of speed limits across the N56 announced recently in
02:15legislation because all secondary roads will see the speed limits reduced, this
02:21potentially has the possibility to open the door for this national policy to be
02:25reviewed, especially in light of the impact that it's having in Donegal.
02:29Housing being permitted on an appropriate and limited basis on
02:33adjacent roads to the N56 should be absolutely be permitted now. Cars going
02:38slower along these roads make them safer and allow appropriate houses to be
02:43built on adjacent roads. So I'm asking you to engage with TII, with Transport
02:47Infrastructure Ireland and ask them to have this policy reviewed concerning the
02:52impact it's having on Donegal. The issues of planning stand on its own two feet.
02:56This isn't an issue of planning. Donegal County Council are in the main in
02:59planning. The planners on many of these occasions have no issue with the
03:03houses being built there. The road sections of the county look at the
03:07braking distance and the vision lines and those are also being satisfied but
03:11there's a blanket policy there within TII which basically says if you're on
03:16the N56 or indeed if you're coming out onto the N56 you're not getting planning.
03:20It is heartbreak, it needs to stop, it needs to change and the change in policy
03:25in terms of speed limits I believe gives us that opportunity to do so.
03:30In September last year the Department of Transport published a
03:34speed limit review. This review made key recommendations that the default speed
03:38limit on national secondary roads should be reduced from 100 to 80
03:41kilometres an hour, on local roads from 80 to 60 kilometres an hour and on roads
03:46in built-up areas from 50 to 30 kilometres an hour. These changes were
03:50legislated for in the Road Traffic Act 2024 signed into law in April. The
03:55Deputy will recall that national legislation sets default speed limits
03:59for different classes of roads but the final decision will be with local
04:03authorities. They can leave them at the default or apply different limits
04:08through what are called special speed limit bylaws. That's quite right because
04:12it's local councillors, local authorities who are best placed to assess the
04:16characteristics of each road and apply the appropriate limits in light of
04:20safety and traffic management considerations. Implementing the changes
04:24requires local authorities to review the roads in each of the three classes
04:27affected and consider whether the new default or another
04:32limit may be appropriate. It's a large task and therefore the implementation of
04:36the changes has been undertaking in phases with local roads treated first.
04:39The department has worked closely with local authorities towards
04:42implementation and has issued new guidelines to help them. In light of the
04:49complexity of the work the department has agreed that the new local default
04:52limit originally intended to come into effect in late November will now take
04:56effect from early February. Changes to national secondary road speed limits and
05:00roads and built-up areas will be dealt with after this is completed. The deputy
05:05has particularly of course raised the question of developments along national
05:08secondary roads. The TII and local authorities
05:17engage in the setting of speed limits on national secondary roads with TII having
05:20the final say. I expect that the deputy is considering what would be the
05:24relationship between new developments and possible speed limits. We can all
05:27imagine scenarios where a new development beside a road will lead to a
05:30significant increase in traffic and that will impact on the appropriate speed
05:33limit. It might well be necessary to reduce the speed limit in cases of a new
05:38development either because it was actually being built or because it was
05:41planned. I can assure the deputy that these cases TII and local authorities
05:46engaged closely in ensuring that the proposed speed limit alterations are
05:49appropriate. Formal requests for consent for the making of special
05:54speed limit bylaws involve a public consultation phase and are processed by
05:58TII on an ongoing basis. Speed limits are designed to be appropriate to current
06:02road requirements including traffic levels and can be changed if these
06:06requirements change. Local authorities can change the speed limits to fit new
06:09developments and speed limits which may currently exist do not act as a barrier
06:14to future developments. Minister, go raibh maith agat
06:21Fionnian, maith agat tareiche, thank you for what you've said but really it
06:24doesn't address the issue. This issue has been going on for nearly 20 years and
06:28there are TDs of indeed across different political divides that have raised this
06:33issue with the National Roads Authority before they were formed into TII and
06:38they're not budget. This is an issue where there is a blanket
06:43policy here and I understand the rationale for some of this here in
06:45terms of road safety but we have planners and we have road sections of
06:49the planning division which actually looks at braking distance, looks at
06:52vision lines and then decides whether it is safe and appropriate for a house to
06:57be built in that area allowing for access onto a road. TII take a
07:01completely uncompromising approach which says you're coming onto the N56 which is
07:07the spine of Donegal and therefore you are not allowed planning. This is
07:11sterilizing land right across the area. We have major issues in terms of
07:15depopulation. I believe in rural communities, I believe in our Gaeltacht
07:18communities, I believe in vibrancy in them. I want to see young people being
07:22able to build on their own lands. We have a policy at national level that is
07:26frustrating that, that is causing serious damage to that policy and what needs to
07:30be done and what I'm asking government to do is to reach out to TII and to say
07:34that you need to review your policy folks. You need to look at this blanket
07:38approach, this sledgehammer approach is not fair. It's not fair to the people of
07:42Donegal. Of course road safety has to be at the heart of it. God for we know in
07:46Donegal how many people have lost their lives in the road. That's without a doubt
07:50but a blanket approach to this policy is not acceptable. Back in July Donegal
07:55County Council submitted a proposal to enable what they described as the
07:59continued survival of our rural and Gaeltacht communities to TII to allow where
08:04necessary the appropriate and limited access to the N56 in relation to planning
08:08permissions. The TII are not listening Minister. Now we do have a change in
08:13terms of the speed limits and that's a separate issue in reality. What we need
08:19is a change in policy, a more appropriate policy in relation to TII. You know this
08:27is not acceptable where the whole county of Donegal, the whole west of the county,
08:31south of the county of Donegal is serviced by this main road and therefore
08:35this main road doesn't allow people to build on their own land. It has to stop
08:38and I'm asking you directly will you intervene with TII today? I will
08:44certainly pass the comments of the Deputy to the Minister for Transport and I
08:49think look the speed limit issue has been dealt with and I think the local
08:52authority, local councillors which your colleagues can engage with TII, an
08:56allocation of almost 30 million euro was provided to Donegal County Council for
09:01national roads in 2024 and there are major projects in Donegal, six of them
09:05including on the N56, Dun Laogha ta GleintaÃs, the N56 from Charles to Inver, there
09:12has been a lot of investment in roads in Donegal. We want to make sure those roads
09:15are safe but I agree with you we need to make sure that people can live in their
09:18communities. That people can have a place to live in their homes and that they can
09:24have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live in their homes and that people can have a place to live