Cllr David Doran responds to Deputy Michael Lowry's criticism

Indepndent Councillor David Doran has taken issue with criticism by Deputy Michael Lowry of his speaking out at the issue of the Cabra Bridge houses, just outside Thurles.

Deputy Lowry was critical of the continuous commentary by councillors at a time when negotiations are at a sensitive stage, especially when the local authority had asked for time to allow the process to conclude.

However, Cllr Doran had raised the matter on a number of occasions and has been highly critical of the local authority - a fact which prompted  Deputy Lowry to hit out this week.

"I want to take issue with Deputy Michael Lowry’s comments recently when he castigated me for breaking my silence on the Cabra houses and for what he deemed my misguided comments. I am 15 years a public representative for Thurles and I am sure that the issue of the six unoccupied houses at Cabra is as vexed an issue as I’ve came across in all that time and it is so with good reason.

Cllr David Doran

"I had broken the story of the housing scandal at Cabra long before Peter Casey had brought national attention to it and when Tipperary County Council asked for space to mediate with the prospective tenants I agreed to give that time and space and remain silent which I did do. But then, after some briefings in committee I gave notice to the Council that I would be speaking out if they hadn’t reached some type of an agreement -another two months passed and when they still had not reached any type of conclusion and now totaling nearly a year, leaving six fully finished houses unoccupied while over 900 remain waiting to be housed in this district is totally unreasonable and unacceptable. I deemed it my duty to absolutely speak out and called it for what it was a total and utter disgrace that our council are negotiating a special arrangement of any kind while houses lie idle and families un housed.

"Deputy Lowry castigated me for shooting my mouth but I was simply exercising my mandate and using my voice to relay the message to the Council officials that the people of Thurles and the surrounding parishes are incensed with this whole debacle and that they have had enough of behind closed doors talks that’s costing thousands in mediation costs in itself while houses built for 2.2 million euros are left idle. A discrepancy of half a million was only uncovered recently when Deputy Mattie McGrath got an answer in Dáil Éireann - I believe that Ml Lowry doesn’t fully appreciate the anger, consternation and vexation that’s in the public mood re this issue.

"I supported the building of these houses as did all my colleagues initially and I supported them because I believe that the current living conditions were unacceptable and it was a health and safety issue for families to be living where they are on the bridge so I don’t accept that we should now be agreeing to special arrangements because it appears that the council didn’t do their job correctly in the first place by not having a definite agreement in place before the houses were built.

"Maybe if Deputy Lowry and the other local TD's had got involved in this process months ago before there was any mediation constraints on them like I called for them to do at the time,  this whole sorry saga could be resolved months ago and we wouldn’t have the nation talking about why our council has left these houses idle for nearly a year while so many need housing.

"I have personally written directly to the Minister asking him to immediately intervene here and I would question how our Director of Services could be forthcoming with details to Deputy Lowry when she couldn’t come and answer legitimate questions at our council meeting last week.

"In my opinion the only reason this debacle has become our national children’s hospital is because of how badly handled this was by our county council officials and that’s why I have contacted the Minister and brought him up to date with my involvement so far and asked him to intervene without delay. My considered opinion is that there is no appetite whatsoever within the community for a special arrangement for anyone and I’m saying again very clearly allocate the houses as they are we should all be treated equally and no sectors of our society should be treated differently to anyone else with any special arrangements or sweet deals," Cllr Doran said.