Forty-seven new social homes are on the way in Carrick-on-Suir district

Tipperary County Council is building or planning to build 47 new social homes in Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District with 22 houses completed last year. But it’s not enough to meet demand, complained a councillor at the district's monthly meeting.

Council Housing Section officials updated Carrick MD councillors on social housing projects across the district at the Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District meeting in Carrick-on-Suir Town Hall last Thursday.

Executive Engineer Shaun Lonergan informed councillors that a contractor is on site developing the seven-house Slieve Alainn house scheme in Drangan.

In Fethard, a seven house scheme proposed by Belmont Park Housing Association at Gort an Óir, Fethard has reached the third of the four stages of approval which is the detailed design and pre-tender cost estimate stage.

Another proposed 14 Approved Housing Body (AHB) housing project at Presentation, Fethard is at the second stage of the approval process.

A proposed project for 10 new homes in Ballingarry is being revised to increase it to 19 homes and is currently at Stage 2 in the approval process.

Meanwhile, 22 new homes were completed by the Council in Carrickbeg in Carrick-on-Suir last year.

Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne, however, contended that the 47 homes on the way and 22 homes completed was not that many considering there are 375 approved applicants on the district’s social housing waiting list and only 19 vacant council houses at the moment across the district that stretches from Carrick-on-Suir to Ballinure near Thurles.

The Carrick-on-Suir councillor requested a breakdown of the number of applicants on the social housing list over 10 years and whether the list is higher or lower than last year.

Cllr Dunne said the number of applicants on the council housing list should be coming down or starting to level off.

He believed the two new housing schemes in Carrick-on-Suir had made “absolutely no dent” in the figures.

Cllr Dunne reminded the Council about the long awaited masterplan for housing development on lands its owns at Coolnamuck on the outskirts of Carrick-on-Suir. This was prime land for housing and he appealed for progress to be made on the masterplan.

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Labour Cllr Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan also sought a breakdown of the people on the housing list a long time as well as people seeking transfers from one council house to another.

He said constituents in his hometown of Killenaule were coming to him weekly to get updates on the housing list.

They put in bids for social housing tenancies on Choice Based Letting (CBL) and were disappointed the council didn’t come back to them to explain why their bid was refused.

A bit more communication from the Council would be nice, he urged.

Cllrs Dunne and Brennan were informed by the housing section delegation that they didn’t have the breakdown of those housing list figures they requested but promised to supply it to them.

In relation to Cllr Brennan’s criticism of the Council’s communication with applicants who submit CBL bids, it was pointed out that there could be hundreds of bids submitted for a house and it was not practical to contact everybody who applied.

A Housing Official could speak to an unsuccessful applicant with a query about their CBL bid if they contacted the Housing Section directly.

Mr Lonergan informed Cllr Dunne he would bring his comments about the Coolnamuck masterplan to the Housing Section and report back to him with information.

HOUSING LIST

Meanwhile, the Council's list of approved social housing applicants in Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District shows there are currently 204 applicants from Carrick-on-Suir town on the list, which accounts for over 54% of the total.

There are 46 applicants based in Fethard, 22 based in Mullinahone, 19 in Killenaule and 18 in Ballingarry, according to the figures outlined in the Housing Services report presented to Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District’s monthly meeting.