Paper trail: fury over 22-page housing form
The detailed form already used in Wexford replaces the three-page form used by Enniscorthy Town Council.
Local authority chairman, Jackser Owens, says it’s “bureaucracy gone mad” and that it’s going to cause a major headache for the council’s two staff charged with going through the form with applicants.
As well as traditional questions about a client’s current living arrangement, the form goes into detail about a person’s tax affairs, their children, custody agreements where applicable and other personal details. The Department of the Environment has plans to have it used by other authorities soon.
“We had the three-page form for donkey’s years but some bright spark somewhere thought it’d be better to replace it with a 22-page form,” said the Wexford councillor. Applicants for a new 23 house scheme on the Lower Ross Road have already filled out the three-page form.
“But now, all 445 applicants for these houses are being asked to fill out the 22-page form. They must do this between February 24 and March 31 and two staff in our council office will have to interview each of these people and go through the form with them, individually.
“Your typical mortgage form is no more than about four pages and it’s the most major financial decision most people will make in their lives. Yet we have this form just to apply for a house. And we’ve been told that even if one question is filled out wrong, that the application will be deemed invalid,” Mr Owens said.
Mr Owens said he was a housing applicant himself 30 years ago and feels that the old form would have sufficed. “It’s as if they’re trying to turn people off applying for houses. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Are they trying to do away with housing applicants altogether - to turn people off and give them the impression that it’s not worth their while even applying?” he said.
