WHAT TO DO WITH A DERELICT HOUSE

 We are on holiday on the Dingle peninsula, Co Kerry, Ireland.  As we walk along a little country road,  we admire the natural beauty.  There are wildflowers and rabbits and no traffic.

Suddenly we see a scene which stops us in our tracks.  It's a wonderful old farmhouse. 

It's set amidst stunning scenery, peaceful and secluded but not isolated.  There are new houses scattered around the area. Sadly this house hasn't been occupied for many many years.

There are outhouses on each side of the property. They were built by hand without cement much like similar houses built in other countries of the same period. I look at the net curtains which can still be seen in the windows. I ponder at when they might have been put up.  I imagine a woman having washed them on a sunny day, cleaning the windows before re hanging her bright clean nets. She wouldn't have thought it was her last time doing so and how many years they would remain as she had left them....

 Later in the day we were chatting with a local and asked what was the story of why a house in such a scenic area was derelict?  He said it had been left to the  granddaughter of the previous elderly owners.  The granddaughter and her young family now live in Dublin. The planning laws in Ireland are so strict with so many clauses on restoration of old houses that it proved far too expensive  to do the building work involved to restore it. They young couple have a big mortgage on their own home and the banks will not lend the money needed to complete the work.  The roof is falling in therefore in a matter of three or four years the house will collapse.  Sadly this lovely old farmhouse will be lost like so many more with nothing in it's place.  There are so many young people who are paying high rents in this country and need houses of their own.  The question must be asked why are our planning laws so strict and costly?  Why does a house have to be renovated in a particular way when it could be renovated safely without such specific requirements or knocked down and a new house built in it's place. Either way,  there would be another house available for people to live in.

 There is no consensus on the precise number of derelict houses here. Data from Ireland's last census, in 2016, put the figure at 183,000.   So very sad to see more and more of our people living in their cars when houses could be made available in a matter of months.

I'd really appreciate your opinions,  please comment below if you have any ideas on what could be done.