Dublin City Council housing chair suggests 'encouraging people away from the city'

""Is there any opportunity... to kind of encourage people away from the city," she said. "And I don't mean that [as] a negative. I mean that [as] a positive. "I know people who moved away from the city and they have really good quality of life, experiences, peace, tranquillity and all of the rest of it, as well as, I suppose, a lack of huge demands on limited services," she said."

""I see Dubliners, neighbours, family, people I know well, being forced out of the city because of high rents and unaffordability. So, we are forcing our people out of the city at the moment, chair," he said."

""I suppose I just constantly think that there's so much pressure on services in the city, and there's so much stress being experienced by people living in the city trying to get from A to B," Ms Heney said. "Living in towns and villages outside of the capital city has huge benefits in terms of the environment you're living in. "I want the best for people. While I love Dublin myself, I certainly love the countryside. I wish I had more of an opportunity to visit the countryside. "There's so much more out there than just be"

Deirdre Heney proposed encouraging people to relocate from Dublin to towns and villages to improve quality of life and ease pressure on limited city services. The proposal would mirror the former Rural Resettlement Ireland scheme, which assisted city residents moving to rural areas before government funding ended in 2012. A councillor countered that high rents and unaffordability are already forcing Dublin residents out of the city. Heney emphasized environmental and lifestyle benefits of living outside the capital and framed the idea as aiming to give people better experiences, peace and reduced stress.

Read at Irish Independent