‘Families living in cramped conditions’

At one time Cork County Council prioritised houses for larger families at the expense of single people — but the wheel has turned full circle.

In recent years, many county councillors successfully lobbied to have officials recognise the plight of single people, including those divorced or widowed, by building smaller houses.

However, yesterday some councillors complained the local authority was not doing enough for couples who have larger families.

At a meeting of the county council’s northern division in Mallow, Cllr Noel O’Connor (FG) said he had become aware of a number of families with four or more children who “were now being left out on a limb” because the size of council houses had, by and large, become smaller.

He welcomed that single people were being better catered for, but insisted that “the issue of bigger families needs to be tackled”.

He said he was aware of parents with four or five children living in cramped conditions in three-bedroom houses.

Officials acknowledged the majority of their housing stock consisted of three-bed properties.

The council, it emerged, may have to seek help from voluntary housing agencies and had also put in requests to get suitable vacant properties from Nama.

Meanwhile, some county councillors complained local authority houses in North Cork were being left vacant for too long, often attracting vandals.

Cllr Gerard Murphy (FG) said the council would make more money through rents if they carried out repairs quickly and approved new tenants.

Cllr Tim Collins (Ind) said there were vacant council houses in Kanturk which had “a huge number of people on the waiting list”.

Cllr Ronan Sheehan (Lab) said properties in other local towns left unoccupied had “been wrecked”.

Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe (FF), said he was inundated with calls from people on the council housing waiting list frustrated to see so many properties lying idle for so long.