Housing boost for Galway families with special needs

Funding has been made available for the purchase of thirteen properties to house people with special needs in Galway city and county.

The houses are to be bought rather than built by either of the two local authorities and will take applicants with special needs off the two housing lists.

Eight houses are to be bought in the county area with €867,839 while €914,350 has been allocated for the city by the Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan as part of a national €32million funding boost for those in need of social housing.

While the news has been welcomed generally, Deputy Derek Nolan has called for a move from social housing provision reliant on the rental market to a targeted building programme.

Deputy Nolan said: “At present, the sole strategy open to local authorities is to rent property and provide it to families and individuals who qualify for social housing. This is, and will only ever be, a partial solution.

“What we need now is a phased programme which moves from renting houses from landlords to building new local authority houses. This should be a targeted building plan which will address our housing problem in the long-term, instead of an interim solution which the rental scheme offers.

“While renting is useful for those with short term or changing housing needs, it will not enable us to plan in the long-term or have an adequate degree of certainty about the amount of housing that the State can provide for its people.

“Perhaps even more importantly, a social housing building programme would provide thousands of construction jobs in Galway and across the country and stimulate vital activity in the sector.

“I welcome Minster O’Sullivan’s recent announcements on additional funding for the housing sector and indeed commend her for all her hard work in the area.

However, the time has now come for a specific building programme to address our housing problems and to plan for the future. It’s true that limited capital is available at the moment, but now should be the time to start preparing the groundwork for shift back to house building,” he said.