16-year wait for Galway CIty Council house

A Galway man has been offered a local authority home – 16 years after he joined the waiting list in January 2002.

That’s what Independent Deputy Catherine Connolly told the Dáil last week, as she reiterated her claim that the housing crisis in Galway was now worse than in Dublin.

“This year and next, 14 houses will be built in Galway,” she said.

“The last house built for social housing was built in 2009. I live in a city where there is no master plan. There are public lands in Ceannt Station, the docks and elsewhere and we are leaving it to developers all over again.

“The senior Minister agreed with me when I raised this at Leaders’ Questions and said we need a master plan. There is no master plan in Galway City,” she added.

This is not a natural disaster, this is a Government-made disaster caused by specific policies, including those of the previous Labour-Fine Gael Government, she said.

“It made the most fundamental change in housing policy when it said housing support was now a house. That was an utter twist of language.

“It is difficult enough to understand the complexity of our attitude to the Irish language but in respect of the language around housing, my mind boggles to think that housing support is now regarded as a social house,” said the Galway West TD.

Members are here every week, not to be negative but to use our voices to tell the Government that there is a housing crisis that is now an emergency, she said.

“If the Government does not declare an emergency, we cannot come up with proper solutions. Fianna Fáil has a golden opportunity,” she concluded.