People in Ireland need to give up on the idea of sprawling suburbs of semi-detached houses and families living next door to each other, Ciara Kelly has said. 

With little sign of the housing crisis abating in 2026, Fianna Fáil Councillor Deirdre Heney has suggested the re-introduce a programme similar to the defunct Rural Resettlement Scheme, which encouraged people to leave Dublin for the countryside. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Ciara Kelly said she believes Irish cities need to change. 

“First of all, where our love of sprawl comes from is that we are completely wedded in our heads to the idea that everyone should actually live in a three or four bed semi-D with a front and back garden,” she said. 

“We have this idea as well, you hear it, ‘I want my kids to be able to grow up on the same street I grew up on and next to me.’ 

“It's a lovely idea but if you speak to anyone in the whole of Ireland, it doesn't really happen to anyone else. 

“In rural Ireland, they're very used to their children upping sticks and moving to Dublin or Cork or Galway - they know that happens.” 

New housing under construction in Kildare. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie.

Ciara added that she has no expectation that her children will be able to afford to live near her. 

“I live in a nice leafy suburb,” she explained. 

“My kids [don’t] have a hope in hell of buying something where I live.

“They just wouldn't be able to afford it, so there has always been a movement among generations because that is how it goes.” 

Builders at work. Photo: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie. 11/01/2022

Fellow presenter Shane Coleman said Cllr Heney’s remarks were an indication that Ireland still does not “get the city concept”.

“What we actually need is not less people living in our cities, we need more people living in our cities in the actual city centres,” he said. 

“I was in Malaga at the weekend; eight storeys across the whole city and even within walking distance of the city centre, you had like 16, 17 storeys. 

“It didn't look massively high rise, it means you can have a big population concentration.

“So, it means you can do things like have good public transport - it becomes affordable and cost effective to do.” 

Shane added that, like most large European cities, Malaga has a Metro to the airport and that is “how cities should work”.

“Imagine a thousand people living on O'Connell Street,” he said. 

“Imagine if the new Stephen's Green shopping centre had apartments - that's what we should be doing. 

“Imagine if we could move the Dublin Docklands 40 miles up the coast and build a kind of a new urban area.” 

Main image: A split of Ciara Kelly and a semi detached home. Pictures by: Newstalk and Alamy.com.