Council houses fix-ups ‘drop in the ocean’ for Galway waiting list

Funding of €415,000 to refurbish 21 long-term vacant local authority houses has been described as ‘a drop in the ocean’ in respect of putting a dent into the city’s housing list.

The money allocated to Galway City Council by the Department of Housing and Planning will restore a third of the city’s vacant housing stock.

However, Councillor Catherine Connolly, while welcoming the funding and any effort to provide public housing, said the housing application list of over 4,500 was at a crisis point.

Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, announced last week that 952 homes would be provided nationally through a scheme to bring back into use long-term vacant local authority units. Of that 21 are in Galway, where there are currently 74 vacant council houses.

Cllr Connolly said 74 was the official list but she had no doubt that there were more that they weren’t aware of yet.

“I welcome any effort to provide public housing but it is still a drop in the ocean as far as the official housing list of over 4,500 is concerned. What is most frustrating is that the list isn’t getting any lower, only higher.

“For the first time too in two and a half years, a public housing scheme for the city has been announced with the proposal to build 15 units at Ballymoneen Road under the Job Stimulus Programme. That funding is for €2.5million,” she said.

Cllr Connolly said she was concerned about a fundamental change in policy that had gone unnoticed and that was that people’s entitlement to a local authority house was no longer a right.

A new Rent Allowance Scheme (RAS) that was introduced meant that applicants who refused offers of accommodation under this programme were penalised.

“In other words people who may have been on the housing list for 11 or 12 years could find themselves taken off the list by refusing an offer of a house under  RAS. And even those who take accommodation under RAS have no guarantee of being in it for the five years years if the private house owner decides to take it out of the scheme and sell the house.”

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel