Council ‘working night and day’ on housing

Calls for an emergency conference on housing and homelessness at this week's meeting of Tipperary Co Council were met with questions of what the council could do about the situation.

Cllr Pat English wanted the local authority to hold a special meeting on the worsening housing crisis. He said there were four families with nowhere to go in the lobby of the council's Clonmel headquarters that morning.

Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan described the situation as “horrendous”, with people sleeping in cars despite the amount of vacant houses throughout the county. “I've never seen anything like it,” she exclaimed.

Cllr Séamie Morris pointed out that he has been calling for a special meeting on housing for some time now. He sought a “suite of ideas” and appealed for people to “think outside the box” in search of solutions. Among the ideas he suggested were an end to planning restriction on timber structures, and for properties over shops to be made available for accommodation, although they would need to be brought up to a high BER.

However, Cllr Kieran Bourke said the solutions to Tipperary's housing crisis lie outside the control of the council. Cllr Siobhán Ambrose was of a similar view; she said everyone in the council's Housing section is doing everything they can and people generally “have to be realistic in terms of what we can achieve”.

‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’

Cllr Joe Hannigan said the “elephant in the room” of the housing crisis is migration into Ireland. Twenty percent of the world's population is being displaced by war and climate change, and this is placing further pressure on countries that already have housing problems.

“Migration into the country is one of the big issues here,” said Cllr Hannigan, who added that the local authority's best efforts would not be enough to deal with the situation.

“It might not be the most populist thing to say here, but it's the reality.” Cllr Peggy Ryan made the point that Irish people had emigrated in search of better lives for generations. “I think we should show compassion for people who are refugees and homeless at the moment,” she said.

CEO Joe MacGrath said Tipperary Co Council is “working night and day” to deal with the complex issues around housing. This is something that has been acknowledged by every councillor. The council has exceeded every target set for it by the Department of Housing.

NATIONAL ISSUES

Most of the problems referenced are national issues that would not be easily resolved by the council. “A special meeting won't resolve those issues,” Mr MacGrath said.

However, he said the council would set aside as much time as necessary to discuss the situation at its July meeting when the Director of Housing would be present.

“We cannot wait until July,” replied Cllr Hanna Hourrigan. There are empty houses around the county that would take very little work to bring into use but they have been left idle for a long time, she said.

Mr MacGrath considered this view to be “totally unfair”, as it gave the impression that nothing is being done about the council's void or vacant housing stock.

“I do not accept that,” the CEO said, mentioning that Tipperary County Council has spent millions on housing voids.