Rural scheme ‘orders’ families to keep villages alive

A rural resettlement scheme has been inundated with requests from villages wishing to "order" families with children in a bid to keep local schools open.

Founder of Rural Resettlement Ireland, Jim Connolly, said homeless families in Dublin desperate for a fresh start could become a vital resource to save rural communities. He said they have had a number of requests from schools “desperately needing two or three students to save a teacher’s job”.

“We get requests like this from schools from all over the west — in recent weeks we have requests from schools in Tipperary, Mayo and Clare. It’s like they are ordering families off a menu,” he said.

“We have three villages in west Clare who are getting new families this summer, all with young children. I know in each of these cases they are saving a teacher’s job,” Mr Connolly said.

Mr Connolly confirmed that a number of homeless families in Dublin are preparing to move to sparsely populated villages and towns in rural Ireland. Rural Resettlement Ireland has been contacted directly by a number of homeless Dublin families in recent weeks, who are living in temporary hotel accommodation, paid for by Dublin City Council.

A total of 150 homeless families with more than 300 children are living in temporary accommodation in Dublin hotels.

“None of the current situation makes common sense. We have a housing crisis in Dublin. For the first time ever we are now taking inquires from people who are homeless. I’m talking about people who had a mortgage before the crash, Mr and Mrs Average, who had a mortgage and couldn’t keep up with it. We’ve been dealing with families in recent weeks who are being put in a Travelodge in Dublin by Dublin City Council.”

This news comes three weeks after Clare County Council revealed that 36.4% of houses in the West Clare Municipal District are unoccupied. The situation was worse in Kilkee, where 71.5% of houses were found to be unoccupied.

rri.com