Cork County Council to provide 1,200 new homes by end of next year

Cork County Council will provide 1,217 new local authority homes by the end of 2017, according to its chief executive.

Some councillors maintain that the local authority had immediate access to €80m from the Government to build and purchase homes for those on the waiting list, claiming the council is not acting quickly enough to address the housing crisis.

Chief executive Tim Lucey debunked the myth that the council had access to the money this year, saying it is being provided over a three-year period.

Last year the council got €20.68m, and expects a further €35.4m this year.

Mr Lucey said he expects the balance of the €80m to be paid next year, plus more to kickstart further plans. He said the reality is that the council would reach its targets and probably exceed them.

Councillors Frank O’Flynn (FF) and Des O’Grady (SF) had asked what plans were in place to address the housing crisis.

Mr Lucey said a lack of government funding in recent years had resulted in the council not being able to progress designs for new schemes and it was taking time “cranking up” the process.

“We would like to have more houses under construction [now] but we were lying dormant for a number of years because we didn’t have funding to advance designs again,” said Mr Lucey.

“It takes time to crank up construction programmes.”

Noel Collins (Ind) said there is a major social housing in crisis in the county.

“I failed to get [council] accommodation for four families recently,” he said.

“Following a radio appeal I got three caravans from a lady in Dungarvan. It’s like Bethlehem re-enacted.”

Mr O’Grady said he welcomed that the council was drawing down the most money it could, but pointed out that €80m was the amount it got for housing in 2006 and that money “should have been made available for the first year”.

Mr Lucey said even private developers were taking time to crank back up.

He said he had received approval from the Government to take on more staff in the council’s housing development section and that the local authority is also trying to progress a number of purchases of developments to be constructed by the private sector.