Dublin (AP) – Living like in the Oscar-nominated film “Banshees of Inisherin”, wide views of the sea and lots of nature? In Ireland you get money for it now. Since Saturday, the government in Dublin has been paying up to 84,000 euros to those who buy and renovate a house on one of the 23 remote islands on the west coast of the EU state. The aim is for the number of inhabitants there, which has fallen by 13 percent since 1996, to rise again. In addition, a fifth of the population on the islands between Cork and Donegal is older than 65 years – nationally it is 12 percent.
The reasons for the population decline are a lack of jobs and poor infrastructure with poor transport links and few doctors, shops and leisure facilities. Now the government is counting on many people being able to work from anywhere thanks to the home office. To ensure access to medical care, new technologies such as robotic dogs or drones are being tested on some of the islands that have no bridges to them or are cut off at high tide.
The condition for state support is that the house was built before 1993 and has been empty or dilapidated for at least two years. The government emphasized that it was not a relocation bonus.
Some islanders were skeptical. They criticize that the money provided is not enough to renovate a dilapidated house. But most welcomed the project. In this way, jobs could be created and the housing shortage solved, said Aisling Moran of the island association Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann.
2023-07-01 16:23:16
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