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GE2024no green lightGREEN PARTY LEADER Roderic O’Gorman said a party TD made a ‘legitimate’ objection to over 300 houses near his home, as the plans were in “breach” of the local area layout.
The Irish Independent first reported that Green TD and candidate for Dublin-South West Francis Noel Duffy objected to plans for 330 homes to be built next to his home with the primary grievance being that the development “overlooks our kitchen”.
Duffy, who is the Green Party’s housing spokesperson, also said that blueprints for the housing estate were not in line with the 2014 Ballycullen-Oldcourt Local Area Plan and 2016 Development Plan. A High Court ruling later overturned the permission.
Speaking to reporters this morning, at an event where Duffy was meant to be present, O’Gorman said the reason that people object to housing under local area and development plans was to insure that “good-quality housing” is delivered.
O’Gorman said: “In this situation, Francis identified that what was being proposed for this area didn’t meet the criteria of a local area plan. An Bord Pleanála’s inspector actually agreed with that particular point.
“So I think it is legitimate, where a proposal doesn’t meet the planning rules that have been put in an area, that somebody living in that area – and Francis does live in that area – can make a submission in to the local authority,” he added.
In Duffy’s submission, the government TD acknowledged that housing was going to be built on the site at some point – as the land had been zoned for residential property. He also disagreed with the height and density of the plans.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman says he believes party TD Noel Francis Duffy made a ‘legitimate’ objection to 330 homes in the Ballycullen-Oldcourt area. Duffy, who was meant to be present at today’s media briefing, is out canvassing this morning instead @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/72lomeHUXn
— Muiris Ó Cearbhaill (@muirisoc) November 16, 2024
Asked by The Journal if it was appropriate for a government TD to object to these plans – particularly as his party pushed back against a proposal to waive the so-called land hoarding tax - O’Gorman repeated that he believed Duffy’s submission was legitimate.
The Green party leader added: “Look, the law doesn’t limit any member of the Oireachtas from engaging in the planning system.
“We just passed a new Planning Bill, and I suppose if there was a societal view that TDs or councilors shouldn’t engage, that could have been done there, but no one raised that issue.”
O’Gorman said he believed that it would remain the case that TDs, senators and councillors could object to the plans.
Duffy spent the morning canvassing in Dublin South-West, according to O’Gorman, and made the “political decision” to sit out the party’s media briefing on disability policy.
The Green’s leader said that his party would increase funding for disability care by 25% every year, if elected into government again, and listed his achievements as the minister responsible for the subject.
Asked if he supported ideas by the Social Democrats to establish a ministerial role solely for disability, O’Gorman said there already was a senior minister responsible for the portfolio and that the outgoing government worked hard to establish the position.
“I wish I’d had more time,” O’Gorman admitted and said that while the government were able to increase investment, there’s more work to do.
“I think it’s really important that we continue to have, in the next Dáil, a senior minister for disability,” he said, adding that disability advocacy groups have supported his role and have acknowledged the difference it has made.
He said that he would not like to see the portfolio be ‘slammed’ back into the remit of the Department of Health under the next government.
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Oh wow. Poor dude, someone would be overlooking his kitchen. But putting 1000 single, adult males in tents next to a creche and a primary school in Athlone is ok and parents and local community cannot object to that? But I am sure he is a very inclusive person, virtue signalling and educating others about diversity and camps everywhere else in the country. As long as his neighborhood is the way he wants.
@Borisa Zivkovic: Kevin Kerr is due on any minute to give you a jolly good ticking off for giving out about the single adult males in tents…..
@Borisa Zivkovic: It’s typical rat behaviour. Same thing with all these left wing parties. Holly cairns, leader of the social rats rejected a social housing plan in her locality top because it ‘would overrun the services in the locality’. She then supported the 100s of asylum seekers in Dundrum Co. Tipperary where the place is only a tiny community.
@Borisa Zivkovic: we could have a new Immigration Mangement Agency if we get a SF/Inds led government in a mere two weeks. Or we can continue with what FG/FF are doing.
@F1rYnpWc: well that’s what SF are saying now,. although their position on most things changes weekly. It’s a very poor choice for the electorate.
@The next small thing: well the alternative is to continue with Simon and FG’s chaotic immigration or choose a SF/Inds Immigration Management Agency.
@The next small thing: there is only one way to test the strength of SF manifesto pledges. Elect them without FFG preferences, you may have doubts as to those pledges but you have been living your life under FFG broken pledges.
@Borisa Zivkovic: It appears the development plan that he referred to is dated 2016 to 2022 and is applicable to the entire SDCC area, a very broad area.
The Ballycullen Local area plan, according to SDCC it says
“On the 7th May 2019, by resolution, the Local Area Plan was extended for further period (in accordance with Section 19 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended). The Local Area Plan will now expire 2nd June 2024.”
If a regular Joe like me was opposing this development I would be told that the 2 development plans are obsolete and offer no support in my opposition, I would be told that times have changed, told that I shouldn’t have bought a house in suburban area of a large city if I wanted low density housing, told that there is a Housing Crisis and I should pull on the green shirt, and that in essence I should just go away with my opposition.
Apparently if I’m FRANCIS-NOEL-DUFFY , the HOUSING SPOKESPERSON GREEN PARTY TD with the GREEN PARTY TD WIFE special treatment is rolled out. And this fella out canvassing this morning with his brass neck and then not bothering to turn up to the disability event. Who do they think they are?
@Borisa Zivkovic: amd we all know if it was on of the opposition TDs mehole and tic tok harris would be screaming it from the rooftops
@F1rYnpWc: Yes Brian.
@Finian McG: I’m heartened to read of your concern for the plight of these asylum seekers. Hopefully the new government can bring more suitable, bricks and mortar accommodation on stream soon
They are so out of touch this lot. I will not vote for them.
@Buster Lawless: ‘you can build these social houses anywhere, just not beside my one.’ Is what Noel Duffy would have been better off saying.
@Cole Palmer: we live in a society of snides. I’ve worked on a fair amount of developments and see it first hand. Happy enough for their own house to be built on a ribbon development but the moment someone else does the same they’d be writing to the council with a fake name. FF/FG voters here pretending they wouldn’t do the same.
@Buster Lawless: Not out of touch what they are doing is deliberate
Bye-bye Roderic and Green party. Don’t vote for these eejits. Hazel, we hardly knew you ……….thankfully
@Finian McG: Never had there been a more Hypocritical Party in the Dail, the do as I say Party, not as I do. They have made Energy prices unaffordable for working families, while subsidizing Big Business like Data Centers who are blowing our Emissions targets out the window. They pushed EV cars, then reduced the grants. They pontificate about our Carbon footprint, but fly Business Class around the World to Climate Conventions. They object to all Planning in our local area, Developments, those with a housing need who have their own land, roads, yet their Leader ROG tweets the World, inviting people here, promising them own door accommodation within months. This guy’s wife’s handling of the RTE scandal was pathetic, but it’s why the get a free ride from the Media. They need to be destroyed.
@SV3tN8M4: The Green tax party aren’t hypocrites…..I bet you if we checked all their houses they all have lettuce growing in south-facing window boxes, just as Eamon suggested in the Dáil!!!
The green party is uniting everyone else in wanting them gone…..probably the only good thing this party will be remembered for
@Tom Newell: and Roderic’s famous tweet- the tweet that was heard around the world.
Green Party wipeout at the Ballot Box . No Senate seat for any of them especially Roderick O’Gorman .
@Jim Ryan: I can’t wait to get them gone!!!! Hazel Chu’s husband Patrick Costello must be the most anonymous TD to ever darken the door of Dáil Éireann. Can anyone think of even one, just one meaningful contribution he made to any debate there????
@Finian McG: He brought (his own )government to the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of CETA trade deal. In November 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the challenge, finding by a 4–3 majority that ratification of CETA would be unconstitutional as Irish law currently stands. The court however found by 6–1 that if amendments were made to the Arbitration Act 2010, it would then be constitutional to ratify CETA.[6] Gerard Hogan, one of the judges of the court, wrote in his decision that it “may yet be regarded as among the most important which this court has been required to hear and determine in its 100-year history”.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costello_v._Government_of_Ireland
The real reason is, he feels the housing will bring down the value of his house. And he doesn’t want riff-raff near his home. Later, when all this has died down, he will sell his house and buy somewhere no one can overlook his kitchen.
@AnthonyK: No loss on Noel Francis, himself & his wife & brother in law, like Patrick & Hazel, all milking the political system & drawing big salaries out of it. They have no interest in Ireland or representing the Irish people, they have more interest in some guy who lands here from the Middle East without any identification, than they have in any working Irish family. The Irish people need to deliver a really strong message to these leeches.
Oh dear….
@Tom tom: Trotsky methodology requires poverty, homelessness and chaos to gain power. This explains why a functioning developing society annoys them.
That’s OK he has a house..
@Liam Meade: and a fairly substantial mansion at that, with all the nice extensions – thanks to two TD/minister salaries and expenses coming into the home.
Let’s not overlook tht Culture minister of rte bailout fame is married to him and living in the same house.
@Liam Meade: He has paid for a few journal articles of the highest quality, Enough to get him elected on the 15th count.
That clown needs to be ousted quickly, speaks from both sides of his mouth. What a hypocrite, does he really think we are that thick.
@ray_madden@hotmail.com: the average fianna gael voter is sadly.
@ray_madden@hotmail.com: Duffy is the housing spokesman who when asked about the idea of rental control said “sure that would be Communism” and had to be contradicted by Eamonn Ryan.
@Michael o connor: the average FG voter? Really? Now I don’t vote FG, but I believe them and FF are known as the party for the wealthy? So hold on, all these incredibly thick people are wealthy? But you are not. Yes they are the stupid ones… think before you comment ffs.
@Eoin Jackson: highly doubt the average FF/FG voter is wealthy. Just gullible.
Roderick O’Gorman the most anti Irish person on Ireland since Cromwell .
@Jim Ryan: *in Ireland*
@Jim Ryan: ROG was crying that the Scientologists had brainwashed the Immigrants he has invited here, ROG was hoping the thousands he brought to these shores would vote for him.
Why if that was Sinn Féin Fianna Fáil would be all over it, of course, we know all about the falsities in these claims but nothing about the Greens. Look at the complete and utter failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who didn’t maintain council flats and didn’t bother with an infrastructure and now they are letting private developers to build on public land to build small amounts of social housing on these lands, which the state pays for. Throughout Europe, social housing is the norm yet here it is looked down on and that is because of what Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil let social housing to turn into dens of inequity haunted by dealers and other such ilk.
@Brian D’Arcy: Great deflection there you Green Party sympathiser
@Brian D’Arcy: And if an ff or fg supporter mentions sf in an article that has nothing to do with them,you would be all over it.
The Greens are so elitist and so out of touch it’s actually unbelievable. What they are basically saying is “you can build social housing, just not next to my house.” They are typical left-wing NIMBYs who will promise the sun and moon in order to bankrupt the nation, but when it personally affects them, they don’t want anything to do with it. Same as what happened with the immigration. They were happy to push large amounts of illegal immigrants onto rural communities but I don’t see any of their members of the Dáil putting their hands up to support illegal immigrants being housed in their area. The people who vote for these absolute tools really need to get their heads checked.
@Frank O’Hara: If ROG dumped the thousands of Immigrants on Noel Francis & Catherine’s community, like he did on our community, Noel Francis would no doubt be objecting, absolute hypocrites. Doing a runner from the Disability event this morning then, in case it would affect his chances in the Gravy train election.
@SV3tN8M4: Yeah, it’s a disgrace how O’Gorman has handled the massive amounts of illegal immigrants coming into the country. All he had to do was enforce the law that’s already on the books, it’s not rocket science. If you come here illegally, you are deported back to your country of origin until you’ve been approved for clearance by customs. You’re absolutely right in saying that the Greens would object if immigrants were shipped into their wealthy areas. They want everyone else to burden the costs of having open borders while they get off scot-free from any sort of accountability.
Typical behaviour not in my back garden but yours that ok
So the actual Green Party TD representing them on housing is attempting to block accommodation for probably about 750 people because it overlooks his kitchen? A microcosm of everything that is wrong with housing in this country and why we are in the perma crisis that we are with it. When government representatives are doing this what chance has anyone got. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Roderic O’Gorman waffling on about ‘good quality housing’. I think the only way to sum the whole sorry situation is depressing.
How many times have the FF FG and the Greens been on the radio saying local communities do not have a veto on what happens in their area, they must do as they are told. Then Mr Tweet himself, Roderick backs this spoofer doing the exact opposite.
Vote them out !!
People say, who else is there to vote for, well I’d rather vote for Independents or not at all, before giving that shower a mandate!
@common sense: wasn’t it Simon who said that in his sit down interview?
Rod and the rest are finished after this election. No one will vote for them except their mammies
The local development plan? Lol. You see this a lot in planning objections, as if urban planning in Ireland was ever anything other than a hotchpotch of developments.
Terrible, but tiny compared to the over 10,000 homes the Shinners have objected to.
@Johnny Wilson:No doubt members of all political parties have objected to housing.. but the narrative your spinning has been fact checked multiple times. You’re just spreading government misinformation Johnny.. https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-sinn-fein-objection-6000-houses-5679519-Feb2022/
@Brian: Shinners have objected to homes all over the country
Get this guy on the mailboat,numb skull.
Vulture Capitalism in Ireland: Unveiling the Housing Crisis
https://greenlens.ie/2024/11/16/vulture-capitalism-in-ireland-unveiling-the-housing-crisis/
Let’s not forget how we got here and who was in power!!
when will people get sense and vote these green lunatics into oblivion
Irish politics is diluted by too many micro parties like Greens, PBP, SD, W.P. and too many solo run independents.
One or two of them usually enables FG, FF Ltd to retain power for their (FGFF) COMBINED 45k Party Members, for the majority of the past 103 years.
The main draw is the €96k salary plus €60k expenses plus €10k for sitting on a committee plus pensions, lifelong access to the Dail bar etc.
If these people joined one of the main parties of similar ideology, Labour, Sinn Fein, it would result in more effective Parties getting into power without having to pander to the whims of ‘life support’ independents and micro Parties who were not elected by the majority, but who keep the same old status quo in power, decade after decade.
Green Party policies make sense and are worth voting for. Environmental degradation globally is at a shocking level and needs to be addressed. Everything else is moving deck chairs. We are not exactly consistent in how we judge individuals – we don’t have the fbi or mi5 to go through their bins – so need to be more generous in how we judge.
A green element is an important part of future coalitions. Roderick O’Gorman has been working through an exceptionally challenging portfolio sowing huge work rate as well as integrity.
Ignore Green and how children will rightly blame you for trashing the environment. Your choice.
@Cormac: So we all go live in Yurts, ride bikes and grow our own food. Meanwhile in the rest of the world, all out hairshirt work is obliterated as trump and co run wild in the US.
China, India and Russia continue as they are.
For all we can do, it will take more than us.
As regards green politics, all parties have embraced green politics.
Duffy is no friend of the ordinary people, and if ever proof was needed, well, you have it now.
@Ed Brennan: An upper middle class wealth person, the new greens. Ross O’Carroll Kelly could have written him into his books, actually he might have!!!!
Surely adhering to regional planning guidelines is a good thing?
Yes, we need more housing. No, that isn’t an excuse to not have robust and suitable planning regulations and guidelines which should be followed. Objecting to bad planning isn’t a bad thing.
Maybe it’s arguable, in this case that it’s just nimbyism, but that shouldn’t be assumed. Objections to developments can be entirely valid.
The disability community that I am part of have supported our Minister who got us out of the Dept of Health and Minister Ann Rabbitte has done a fantastic job. I spoke to her and the one thing that came across was she listen to the people with disabilities. She lister to the families. she listen to the support workers.
Did she get everything right or everything done, NO, she did not.
She got more done than any other minister ever has. All the green policy is seen to be Eco Ableism. Green Washing what they want and excluding the disabled community, but it is green, so it cannot be wrong.
Sad, I had to look up Eco Ableism, when I faced it first, as the greens used to be a party of the center left. Not any more, the have turned more aquamarine than green!
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