Fianna Fáil General Election candidate for Sligo-Leitrim Cllr. Eamon Scanlon welcomed the decision, however, he is calling on the Government to ensure that people entering into the planning phase of a new house are made aware of the u-turn.
Cllr Scanlon explained: "Fianna Fáil consistently criticised the government’s building regulations warning of the impact they would have on one-off homes in the countryside. These homes where hit with a regulatory framework designed for large scale developments in towns and cities, penalising people who wanted to build a home on family land in the country.
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"This dramatically increased costs and has damaged the construction industry at a time when the Government claims it is trying to boost it. There was also a failure to communicate the changes leading to a vacuum of information and damaging speculation about the impact it would have on the construction industry. While I welcome the Government’s u-turn on the issue, the fact that it was willing to proceed with it in the first place, despite the serious concerns that were raised brings Fine Gael and Labour's anti-rural bias into clear focus."
(CD/MH)
