Council chief refutes claims over social housing costs

The Chief Executive of Galway City Council has refuted claims that councillors were “kept in the dark” over the costs of building social houses in Knocknacarra.

The Galway City Tribune reported a fortnight ago that the 14 houses on the Upper Ballymoneen Road would cost an average of €330,000 – around twice the national average. They are part of a proposal for a total of 69 homes on the site.

At a subsequent local authority meeting, Cllr Declan McDonnell said that at no time did the former Director of Services for Housing, Tom Connell, inform councillors of the construction costs.

He said he had to find out by reading this newspaper, and he now understood the reluctance of the Department to proceed with the houses.

“I’m very disappointed that I had to learn and read about it in the Tribune. We’ve been talking about this for twelve months, we’re being left in the dark. We’re not being told the facts.

“At no time were we told the cost was the problem. It beggars belief that we would waste that kind of money and not find a new site. We weren’t told the truth. I hope into the future it will be facts rather than fiction,” said Cllr McDonnell.

Cllr Donal Lyons said the first he heard of the costs was on Galway Bay fm last week, and he described them as “rather exorbitant”.

Mike Cubbard said he was hearing the figures for the first time at the meeting and they sounded “absolutely daft”.

Cllr Padraig Conneely said he was in the same position, and it was unacceptable that councillors were not given the full information.

Mr Connell said the Council had been engaging with the Department for the past three years on the Ballymoneen site, and there was a legacy there of consultative costs, preparation of plans etc.

He explained that the Department allowed the Council to go forward with 14 of the 69 houses, they went to tender and selected a preferred contractor. He said every stage of the process was overseen by the Dept and the Council is now seeking approval to move forward.

He totally rejected any suggestion that the Council executive was not up front with information.

Chief Executive Brendan McGrath said: “I refute completely that we’ve been telling lies”, adding that that details would be given to the councillors when the tender process had been completed, as is protocol.

He said the 14 houses are on one side of a new access road, and would all have to be services, so a lot of the costs for development of the site were front-loaded.

“It’s a public tender, we select the most economically-advantageous tender, the houses are specced to meet modern building requirements. Yes, the Dept is right to be concerned, but we went to the market based on a specification, and that is the price the market came forward with.

“We’ve got a chronic shortage of social housing and also a shortage of overall housing which is contributing to the housing crisis,” said Mr McGrath.

He said the city has a shortage of in excess of 3,500 units of accommodation, and required 300 to 350 new units per annum just to keep pace with organic growth in population.

Over the next 18 to 21 months, about 250 units will be provided, he said.

Mr Connell said that as well as the other 55 units on the Ballymoneen site, there were 77 units to be built beside the new Coláiste na Coiribe school as part of a Public-Private Partnership.

“That’s a fairly slow-burner and will take a number of years to deliver and will be bundled with other sites around the country,” he said.

He said there is also potential for 42 units at Baile an Choiste off the Headford Road, but the access road would have to be improved first at a cost of €2m (which would also open up private development land). The Council would be seeking €1.5m in funding and would have to come up with €500,000 from its own budget.

The Council also plans to deliver in excess of 30 social housing units in Doughiska.

A report on the cost of the 14 Ballymoneen properties is to be presented to the Department tomorrow (Wednesday).