News
Minister queried over delay in building social housing
A Galway TD has tabled a Dáil question seeking answers from the Minister for Housing on why his Department is effectively holding up the building of 55 badly needed social houses in Galway City.
Deputy Noel Grealish said the go-ahead for the houses in Knocknacarra, signalled this time last year, has been stalled by a Department officials seeking to squeeze five more houses into the site.
The issue has been described by City Councillor Declan McDonnell, who is chairman of the City Council’s housing committee, as “a disgrace”.
Cllr McDonnell said that at a time when more than 4,700 families were on a waiting list for housing in the city, it was ridiculous that the building of the houses by the council on the Ballymoneen Road should be delayed.
“This time last year we were told by the City Council’s Director of Services that Department approval had been given for building 14 houses on Ballymoneen Road.
“And he had been given verbal approval for the building of another 55 houses on the adjoining site, for which he expected written confirmation by last Christmas.
“Now, nine months in to this year, tenders have only just come in for the building of the 14 houses, which means no building of any house will take place before 2017.
“Worse still, the Director of Services — who has had umpteen consultations with the department on the building of the other 55 houses — has been told he now has to do a feasibility study to find out can we fit in another five houses on that site.”
Cllr McDonnell, who chairs the City Council’s Strategic Planning Committee on housing, said the upshot of this was that the extra houses were unlikely to be built before 2019.
“It’s ridiculous, all this will do is hold everything up — at a time when Housing Minister Simon Coveney is saying he will do everything to fast-track houses, his officials are just placing blockages in the way.
“We now have a situation that for eight years not a single social house will have been built in Galway, from 2010 to 2017.”
Cllr McDonnell added that it would be years before any real progress would be made on reducing the waiting list.
“The current wait for people on the lists is 13 years in the westside of the city and 11 on the eastside. And if we are only going to get 69 social houses in the next three years, there is no hope of a dent being made on the waiting list.”
He said that it was projected that some of the slack would be taken up by the voluntary sector, and an estimated 518 houses would be provided in the next four years, between organisations like Cluid and Respond, and the local authority.
“But 500-odd as against a waiting list of almost 5,000, that’s just 10 per cent of the waiting list.”
Cllr McDonnell said an indication of the pressure on the rental market was the experience of a woman in Ballybane who recently advertised two rooms for rent — and received an avalanche of enquiries, 124 in all, within two hours, mostly from students and their parents desperately seeking somewhere to stay.
Deputy Noel Grealish, who has tabled a Dáil question on the hold-up of approval for the City Council houses in Knocknacarra, said that the problem of homelessness and the waiting list for housing was as bad in Galway as it is in Dublin, relative to its population.
“I have asked the Minister to explain why a barrier is being placed in the way of these badly needed houses at such a crucial time, and what steps he plans to take to solve the crisis in Galway and other cities outside of Dublin,” added Deputy Grealish.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
