Cork authority tops home allocation
Cork County Council housed 502 new tenants in homes in 2010. The housing waiting list stands at 4,271 while another 2,948 are on town council waiting lists.
A spokesman said the council allocated 43 one-bed units, 147 two-bed units, 294 three-bed units and 18 four-bed units to new tenants.
Cllr Michelle Hennessy (SF) said 312 more names will be taken off the list this year as hard-pressed developers provide long-term leasing to council tenants.
In Cork city, just 284 people were housed from the local authority housing list in 2010. Latest figures have the Cork city housing list standing at 8,900.
Mick Barry, Socialist Party councillor with Cork City Council, has described the numbers being housed in the city as “scandalously low”. He blamed Government cutbacks and a lack of interest from developers in providing long-term leasing contracts to local authority tenants.
He again called on the State to allocate some of the houses under the ownership of Nama to people on housing lists around the country.
In Dublin city, just 483 new tenants were housed, according to the most recent Annual Service Indicators in Local Authorities Report.
Last year, Dublin city cut its waiting list by almost half to 14,512 after its tri-annual assessment of housing need.
Three letters were sent to the 26,019 applicants but 12,555 did not reply or failed to provide necessary details.
In Fingal, which comprises most of north Co Dublin, just 188 people were taken off the housing list. In 2010, there were 6,691 people on the local authority housing list.
The number of new tenants housed in Limerick city stood at 133 in 2010 while Waterford reduced its list by just 82 from a figure of 1,109. Last year, there were over 3,000 people on Limerick city’s housing list.
The report also revealed how lack of funding has dogged Cork City Council’s processing of the Mobility Aids Grant Scheme whereby home improvement repairs are made to the homes of elderly and disabled people. “Due to restricted funding, valid applications were held, in some cases, for up to 12 months before being approved,” the council said.
The report also ranked the local authorities on the amount of road repairs they completed over the year. Cork County Council also topped this list — most likely due to its size — with 626km of road upgraded. Next was Mayo with 397km of regional and local roads restored and granted maintenance works.
