Council urged to speed up provision of discounted serviced sites to help locals buy homes

Scheme would help West Cork locals squeezed out of property market by wealthy outsiders seeking holiday homes, councillor said

Cllr Caroline Cronin and her daughter Olivia Cronin-O'Driscoll with neighbours Miriam and Katie Pyburn with Susan, Ryan and Aidan O'Driscoll, Linda and Fionn Murphy, Archie Wilson and Ben Mason, at Ard Chléire in Schull, West Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Cork County Council has been urged to speed up a programme to provide more discounted serviced sites by one of its own councillors who benefitted from such a scheme 20 years ago.

The necessity for subsidised serviced sites has become more pronounced in coastal villages in West Cork as locals are finding it increasingly difficult to compete for homes or sites with well-healed people seeking holiday homes in the region.