Concern grows at allocation of houses

Resentment is being caused in communities in Cork county as people, residing up to 70km away, are edging out locals on a waiting list for council houses.

Concern grows at allocation of houses

A recently-introduced online choice-based letting (CBL) system is flawed, councillors complained, as it allows home seekers to apply for a local authority house anywhere in the county.

Examples were provided at a meeting in County Hall yesterday.

Cllr Kieran McCarthy said, of the last 18 council houses allocated in Carrigtwohill, only two went to locals.

“It’s not right, it’s divisive,” he said.

Cllr Anthony Barry said: “It’s building up a head of resentment. I know the local Family Resource Centre there have concerns about it.”

In Skibbereen, Cllr Joe Carroll claimed the most recent council house allocation was given to a waiting list tenant from Kinsale, almost 70km away.

Cllr Danny Collins said he was aware of an application securing a house 80km away from a West Cork village.

“There are local people on the housing waiting list for years. Councillors need to have more say on who gets houses,” he said.

Youghal-based Cllr Mary Linehan-Foley said her hometown had similar concerns.

“It’s not fair on people who have lived there all their lives. Under the CBL system you can apply for a house anywhere,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Deirdre Forde said some people were so desperate to get a roof over their heads they would apply for a house anywhere.

Furthermore, Cllr Derry Canty noted applications from Bantry and Skibbereen in West Cork had been allocated houses in Ballincollig, on the outskirts of the city.

“We have a housing special purposes committee (SPC) who should be looking at the whole CBL concept,” he suggested

Cllr Paul Hayes noted there were “huge tensions” in communities where locals could not get housing and were “watching people from well outside their area” getting them instead.

“Some system needs to be factored into the CBL for where you’re from,” Cllr Hayes said.

Cllr Seamus McGrath, chairman of the council’s housing SPC, said he was happy to revisit the guidelines and would report back to his colleagues.

Meanwhile, council officials have refused to provide details of the nationalities of people for which it has provided local authority homes. Cllr Diarmaid Ó Cadhla had requested a breakdown on the nationality of allocated houses and if there had been applicants who were from outside the EU.

A number of county councillors said they were glad officials had turned down the request, with councillors Joe Harris and Melissa Mullane saying not to do so would have been “divisive”.

Cllr Ó’Cadhla maintained it was a question that a lot of people were asking.

The council, meanwhile, received a boost yesterday in its battle to tackle the housing crisis when it was granted €12.4m from the Government to develop key infrastructure, with 520 new houses in Water Rock near Midleton and 300 in Ballinglanna near Glanmire by 2021. Around 310 of them will be sold off at €20,000 below market value.

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