Modular homes sought for Nenagh

Local councillor Séamie Morris has called on Tipperary Co Council to develop modular homes for essential workers on Nenagh’s Stereame site.

The council owns a 10.3-hectare site at Stereame and has on three occasions tried to attract a developer to provide private high-quality residential housing on the site, a portion of which would be required for social housing.

Cllr Morris believes the site would be suited to affordable rental modular, or prefabricated homes for essential workers, using the same criteria applied during the Covid-19 pandemic. He told last month’s meeting of the council’s Nenagh Municipal District that Stereame is “shovel-ready” for development and would be ideal for a modular housing project similar to those recently completed in Thurles and Clonmel.

“We’re very short of houses here in Nenagh,” Cllr Morris said, mentioning that he has been trying to assist a working mother of two children who is homeless. “I don’t think that we should look down our noses at modular houses, and if we have to put in a modular wastewater treatment plant as well, so be it.”

District Director Liam Brett agreed that Nenagh needs housing but said the council’s efforts to attract development to Stereame have been hampered mainly due to the capacity of the town’s wastewater treatment plant. But he said that position would change once Uisce Éireann upgrades the plant, and that the granting of planning permission for the upgrade may attract renewed interest in Stereame.

Cllr Morris said a developer did express interest in the site but withdrew over the wastewater issue. He hoped this developer would come back. In any event, modular housing would be a “quick fix to a serious problem” and the council should not dismiss the idea, he said.

“Nenagh has so much going for it. The one thing we’re short of is houses,” Cllr Morris said.