Limerick TD calls for faster housing delivery as up to 12 people live under one roof

Maurice Quinlivan said funding delays are leaving hundreds of local authority homes vacant while families face severe overcrowding

Maurice Quinlivan said there is 'mass overcrowding' in the southside of the city, with up to 12 people living under the same roof in several homes. File picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

A Limerick TD has called for faster delivery of homes, as dozens of families are living with up to 12 people under one roof.

Maurice Quinlivan said there is “mass overcrowding” in the southside of the city, with up to 12 people living under the same roof in several homes and, in some cases, three generations of the same family living together.

“What we're seeing now is a very slowdown of building in the regeneration areas of Limerick,” Mr Quinlivan told the Irish Examiner.

“There are no immediate plans for more houses to be built and we still have a situation for families that live in, three generations of family in a house, which would be 12, in some cases more than 12,” he said.

Mr Quinlivan added that the “bigger issue” lies with the government releasing funding to local authorities.

“For instance, we always have 200 plus local authority homes in Limerick, vacant or boarded up. The reason for that is the scheme the government have delay in delivering funding to local authorities to build local houses,” he explained.

“An average local authority gets €11,000 to build a house. For instance, we could talk about a two-bedroom house is vacant because that family might have bought their own house and moved out got upgraded to a three-bedroom house and that house becomes available,” he continued.

Funding delays

Mr Quinlivan called the situation a “bureaucratic nightmare”, as it takes “so long” for funding to arrive from central to local government.

“By the time Limerick Council gets it, you could be talking about two years be-before anything is done. It’s just frustrating for local people to see it because they know a huge number of people are looking for homes,” he said.

He also said there are records of antisocial behaviour, criminality, dumping and rodent infestations, which he described as unfair to those living on either side of the derelict homes.

“I believe if that was fundamentally changed, and the money was front-loaded into the council, the council would do it. The Limerick Council is well able to do this stuff when it has the funding, the problem is it doesn't get the funding from central government. So if Limerick Council got the funding, I believe we'd be turning around these houses in six to eight weeks rather than two years plus.” 

The Limerick City and County Council’s Regeneration Programme is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) to develop the communities of Ballinacurra Weston, Moyross, Southill and St Mary’s Park.

Former ‘crack house’

This comes as the local council has received criticism over delays in revamping a former “crack house”, which it acquired three years ago.

The property in St Mary’s Park was once described as a drugs supermarket, where drugs were allegedly sold around the clock despite garda interventions.