'Absolutely not' no housing plan for Laois TD Willie Aird on rezoned residential farmland
A Laois TD and dairy farmer has ‘no intention’ of seeing houses built on his newly rezoned Portlaoise farmlands
Part of the Portlaoise town centre dairy farm owned by Fine Gael Deputy Willie Aird has this week been rezoned for housing, but he has no intentions of acting on it.
Dep Aird says he will keep farming the two fields that Laois County Council has just rezoned as suitable for housing construction.
The adjoining fields off Fr Brown Avenue, have been rezoned from Enterprise and Employment to Residential 2.
They face the road, sitting between Clonminman Industrial park, Marian Avenue housing estate, and Deputy Aird’s other farmland. They are opposite Telfords and other retail units, close to the Laois GAA O’Moore Park Centre of Excellence.
Dep Aird told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that there will be no change.
“I’m happy to stay doing what I’m doing. It’s a workable dairy farm. Nothing has changed,” he said.
He did not request for the field to be rezoned.
“They can zone without consultation. I’m not annoyed because I know I didn’t have a choice. This is what County Development Plans are for. It doesn’t change anything for me.
“I won’t be liable for the RZLT ( Residential Zoned Land Tax ) because I’m farming on the land full time so I qualify for an exemption. I’m not the only person in this situation. But if I write in to ask them to zone the land, I don’t qualify for an exemption.”
Asked if he will now be developing the land to build much needed houses in Portlaoise, Dep Aird said “no, absolutely not”.
He said Laois County Council could buy the land by Compulsory Purchase Order, but agreed he would consider a sale if requested.
“If they want it they could CPO it. If I was asked by them to sell it, would I consider it, yes but I hope they won’t. They only come to you if there’s no other land elsewhere available,” Dep Aird said.
With his new workload as a TD, Dep Aird said he now employs a person to help run his dairy farm.
Cllr Aird added that his main focus at the moment is trying to get Portlaoise Courthouse built, and pushing to get answers from Minister Peter Burke on getting a replacement industry into the Leprino cheese factory, which he notes was built with up to €8m of taxpayers’ money.
The newly amended Laois County Development Plan 2021-27 rezoned 16 Portlaoise sites as residential, with two more sites rezoned for new roads. Across Laois in towns and villages big and small, over 80 sites were rezoned, to bring a possible 7,500 new homes to the county, carried out as part of a nationwide policy by the Government. Rezoning is only the first step, each site would be subject to a public planning application process.