Planning issues highlighted with Central Bank Governor during Roscommon visit

The pace of planning in County Roscommon and the need to bolster resources in the council’s planning department were highlighted with the Governor of the Central Bank by local business leaders during a recent visit to the county.

Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf gauged the views of the local business community when he was guest of honour at a chamber dinner in the Abbey Hotel.

Speaking to the Roscommon Herald, the governor said “a mix of things” emerged during his discussions. Among the feedback from Roscommon businesses was that the planning process was moving too slowly.

He said it was an issue that had also emerged during his visits to several other counties.

Mr Makhlouf pointed out that the Central Bank, along with its latest economic projections, had recently published a report highlighting the housing challenge in Ireland.

“You know, there are a number of things you need to do to beat it (the housing challenge), and the first one is look at your planning process,” he said.

Measures to address the housing challenge and increase supply, he said, included looking “quite carefully at planning” and for the Government to invest more in serviced land “so private money can come in to build the homes that people want”.

All of this, he stressed, needed concerted political will. “This isn’t going to come cheaply but there is money. However, if you try and spend money with the existing planning processes, a lot of it will be wasted and you will be just pushing up costs.

“There are a lot of planning applications in the pipeline and the delay that they take to get out the other end just increases the costs of developing. The commentary I am getting is that there is a lot of delay in getting responses from the local authorities here, but I can’t explain why that is,” he said.

Speaking more broadly, he said that overall the planning process was not enabling the building of houses. “Really it should be all about enabling the building of houses. Maybe I’m being a bit it unfair but that is what we’re seeing. That is the reality on the ground.”

Responding to the Herald about how a governor of the Central Bank of Ireland could improve the lives of people, he explained: “By doing our job, and our job is about monetary and financial stability. Basically, everything we do is about consumer protection.

“It’s about the welfare of the people as a whole, everything that we do is ultimately to protect consumers in different ways.”

On a more global level he spoke of the challenges, such as the current wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, and the fragmentation of the global trading system. That fragmentation, he said, was not good for Ireland, “because we have benefited hugely from an integrated world as a small open economy.”

However, he had a positive message for his meeting with the Roscommon business community.

“I didn’t want to underplay the challenges, but I did say that I was optimistic about the country and its prospects,” he said.

During his visit to the county, Mr Makhlouf also paid a visit to the Aurivo plant in Ballaghaderreen and Black Donkey Brewing in Ballinlough. The Roscommon visit marked the twentieth county he has travelled to since his appointment to the Central Bank in 2019.

“I made a decision very early on that actually it was very important for the Central Bank people, not just me, to get out around the country, speak to local communities, local businesses, but mainly listen to local communities and local businesses just to get a sense of what were the issues on their minds,” he said.