Former president Michael D Higgins and his family have become involved in a planning dispute over proposals to build dozens of homes beside the family residence in Galway, the Irish Mail on Sunday understands.
The proposed development of 39 houses would, if approved, place the Higgins home inside a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of new buildings.
In a detailed objection, the 84-year-old former president – who previously criticised the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael-led government’s handling of the housing crisis as a ‘disaster’ and a ‘great, great, great failure’ – accused Galway City Council of unnecessarily rezoning land and putting development ahead of road safety.
The two-term president returned to his Galway city home last November after spending 14 years at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
His wife, former first lady Sabina, and their three sons – John, Daniel and Michael – have also submitted objections outlining their concerns about the proposed housing scheme.
The Higgins family are among 32 residents to object to plans for two apartment blocks, along with detached and semi-detached homes, on Galway’s Circular Road.
The former president and his family stress that they are not against new homes being built beside their property.
Their concern is that the surrounding roads are already dangerous for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, and that the additional traffic generated by the development could make conditions worse.
The former Labour Party councillor, who later became a Galway TD and served as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in the Fianna Fáil–Labour coalition led by Taoiseach Albert Reynolds before joining John Bruton’s Rainbow Coalition, has lived in Rahoon with his family since President Catherine Connolly was inaugurated as the country’s First Citizen last November.
The Higgins family are among 32 residents objecting to plans for two apartment blocks and a row of detached and semi-detached houses on Galway’s Circular Road
In his four-page submission to Galway City Council, Mr Higgins refers to his political career but does not mention his two terms as president.
Instead, he recalls the warm welcome he and his wife received when they returned to the area after being away for ‘14 years’, before setting out what he describes as serious failures in local planning.
In his submission, Mr Higgins wrote: ‘So many people in Galway have sought to make us feel welcome.
‘It is with a heavy heart, however, that I have to report the experience of a deterioration in even the most basic elements of safety on the road where we and our neighbours live.
‘Circular Road, a narrow country road, as is the neighbouring Letteragh Road, is currently not safe for use by pedestrians, cyclists or users of motor vehicles.
‘There has been a vast increase in the volume of traffic which, when combined with a massive increase in speed on a road that has a school at one end that I know sought to be part of an attempt to encourage non car-dependent attendance at school.’
He went on to say that, since he left Letteragh 14 years ago, the lack of a continuous footpath, a traffic-management plan and public transport had become an urgent issue. He added that he could not understand why road safety was not taking priority in the council’s plans.
In 2022, then-president Higgins said Ireland’s chronic housing shortage amounted to more than a crisis, describing it as a social disaster.
Government figures criticised the intervention at the time, with some arguing that Mr Higgins had ‘overstepped the mark’ given the president’s non-partisan and ceremonial role. However, senior politicians, including then Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, acknowledged the serious challenges created by housing costs and a lack of affordability.
In his objection to the Galway scheme, Mr Higgins said homes ‘so badly needed by so many’ should not be delivered at the expense of road safety.
Mr Higgins wrote: ‘I believe that land use planning, including making provisions for housing, so badly needed by so many, should not come at the cost of safe movement on our roads or sustainable planning which has public support.
‘We are not condemned to a binary choice between providing for necessary housing and engaging in appropriate planning.
‘I suggest that the issues of safe usage and preservation of shared amenity space for the future must be given due to the urgency of the safety issue a prior precedence in planning decisions rather than be made an afterthought of development.’
In a separate 28-page submission, Sabina Higgins said that the family and local residents ‘share a serious concern in relation to the lack of road safety and sustainable transport’ around the site of the proposed development.
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It is unclear whether Ms Higgins authored the extensive and professional-looking report herself, or used the services of a planning consultant.
The former first lady’s submission reads: ‘I am also one of the many residents of Circular Road who share a serious concern in relation to the lack of road safety and sustainable transport on that road.
‘For a number of years, members of the public have been calling for action to address road safety on Circular Road and highlighting the need for proper sustainable transport infrastructure including provision for pedestrians, cyclists and a bus route.
‘Because there are no footpaths outside my home or along the road on either side of me and because the yellow line comes up to the edge of the road, I, like many neighbours, cannot leave my home and walk to the left or right.
‘It is extremely challenging to just safely access the small park directly across the road from me due to speeding traffic and, even if there was enough break in speeding traffic and I succeeded in crossing the road, I cannot walk to the right to reach the footpath above Carn Ard or go to a shop in Westside as old sheds that are part of the farm whose land in (sic) the subject of the planning application block the way.’
After carrying out a report on the city’s transport and road problems, Galway City Council has secured funding from the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority to come up with a detailed plan to improve road safety issues.
It is expected this plan will be ready by the end of the year.
The former president lodged his submission with the council in July, a month after Kenny Developments Galway Limited applied for planning permission to build 39 homes on a site beside his family home. Under the plans, 22 of the new homes would be contained in two blocks, with a further 17 detached and semi-detached houses.
The company applied for planning permission three weeks after local councillors voted unanimously to rezone large tracts of land in Galway city to allow for the construction of up 5,000 new homes.
The plot of land earmarked for the 39 new houses next to Mr Higgins’s family home was not included in the plan as it was already zoned residential.
But neighbouring sites in the Circular Road/Letteragh area were rezoned against the advice of the Planning Regulator.
In a letter sent to the local authority last April, the Office of the Planning Regulator stated: ‘The Office does however have concerns in relation to two newly proposed residential zonings at the Merlin Lands and Circular Road East sites.
‘In particular, the Office considers that the proposed changes from Natural Heritage and Recreation and Amenity zoning would result in the loss of significant strategic open space, without sufficient evidence of need or clear strategic justification.
‘Accordingly, the Office recommends that neither site be zoned for new residential development through this variation process.’
However, the council disagreed with the Planning Regulator and instead recommended that land close to Mr Higgins’s home be rezoned for housing because it is ‘inaccessible to the public’ and is not suitable for ‘active recreation or sports pitches’ because of ‘granite close to the surface’.
Rezonings can be overturned by the Housing Minister on the advice of the Planning Regulator.
In a separate 28-page submission, Michael D’s wife Sabina Higgins said that the family and local residents ‘share a serious concern in relation to the lack of road safety and sustainable transport’ around the site of the proposed development
The Mail has received no response to attempts to contact former President Higgins through a spokesperson.
Galway City Council this weekend confirmed it had not been asked to reverse its recent rezonings. A spokeswoman told the MoS: ‘To date we have had no correspondence from the OPR [Office of the Planning Regulator] or the Minister in relation to the Elected Members reserved function to adopt Variation Number 3.’
The local authority claimed that it would not be appropriate to comment on the former president’s criticisms of how the council handles planning and road safety issues.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Planning Regulator confirmed it no longer has concerns about the rezoning of land close to Mr Higgins’ home.
A spokeswoman said: ‘As part of the statutory process, the OPR considers the planning authority’s response to its recommendations.
‘Having reviewed that response, the OPR is satisfied with the variation to the plan as adopted.’
