Anger over Nenagh housing delay

Anger was expressed last week over the length of time it is taking to start work on more than 70 social houses planned for Nenagh.

Tipperary Co Council is greatly exceeding the housing construction targets set for it by the Government, with an anticipated 822 new units to be delivered countywide between now and 2030. But local representatives are concerned that this falls short of the increasing demand for housing, and say new stock must be delivered at a much faster pace.

Cllr Séamie Morris told last week’s meeting of the council that the last four or five weeks have been among his most difficult as a councillor, as he struggled to find accommodation for people in need. He described 80-90% of them as working families. Housing is so hard to find in Nenagh that securing emergency accommodation is “like winning the lotto” to many, Cllr Morris said.

He pointed out that the council is planning to build 74 new units in the town between Gortlandroe (27 units), the former Dapp Inn site (16), Millersbrook (13), Rialto site (13) and five at William St. Some of these plans have been in place since 2022 but there is now a six-stage planning process and the council “still hasn’t put a spade in the ground”.

“We’re going around in circles,” exclaimed Cllr Morris, who levelled blame at Uisce Éireann, which he said was to have upgraded Nenagh’s wastewater treatment plant in 2024. The upgrade project is underway but is not due to be completed by 2029. Cllr Morris said the council “should have sued Uisce Éireann” over this delay.

"We have people living in tents, people living in cars, people on people’s couches,” Cllr Morris said. He wanted to know if the council has connection agreements with Uisce Éireann for the planned houses in Nenagh.

Director of Services Jonathan Cooney said the issue of wastewater treatment capacity has held up private and social housing development in Nenagh for a number of years. He confirmed that connection agreements are in place for the council’s planned houses, and added that the local authority recently engaged with Uisce Éireann on the matter. The council was assured that the houses could be connected to the plant by the time they are finished, and so commencement would be underway in the coming weeks or months, Mr Cooney said.

NEW MOVE ON ONE-BED UNITS

The council this week adopted a new housing allocation process that allows applicants approved for one-bed properties, who are more than six years on the housing list, to be considered for allocation of a two-bed property.

One-bed accommodation is the most sought-after type in Tipperary at present, with more than 1,500 applicants on the council’s housing list. The need is reflected in the housing construction programme, which aims to deliver a total of 822 new units by 2030 – more than half of these (472 units) will be studio or one-bed units. The remainder will be two-bed (153), three-bed (144) and four-bed (53) accommodation.

If the council succeeds in delivering 822 units, it will have exceeded the equivalent Housing For All target by 16%.

But Cllr Pat English described the Government housing targets as “very low and easy to do better than”. He observed that the council still has around 3,500 applicants on its housing waiting list and, despite all of its many efforts, that figure has changed little over the years.

“We’re not really getting on top of that,” Cllr English said. “We’re at nothing, really.”

Cllr Anne Marie Ryan described the efforts as “futile” and said the council must build a lot more houses; the private sector could not be relied upon.

Mr Cooney expected to see significant housing allocations between now and the end of 2026 as new builds come to fruition. But he also mentioned that the Housing section has been operating without a full complement of staff for several years.

SOCIAL MEDIA ABUSE

The council also changed its allocation policy to include refusal of allocations to people subjecting housing staff or councillors to abusive posts on social media platforms.

This was welcomed by Cllr David Dunne, who regarded such abuse as a form of antisocial behaviour. “People have lost their minds on social media and think they can publish anything they like,” he said. “I’m delighted to see that this thing is going to be taken seriously now.”

Cllr John Carroll called for a greater level of inspection of local authority housing in order to tackle antisocial behaviour, though he appreciated that resources are an issue. Cllr Phyll Bugler mentioned an ongoing antisocial behaviour problem in Ballina where “debris” had been left outside a house.

Mr Cooney said the council is looking to improve on inspections but made the point that a thousand houses have been added to its stock in the last six years. The number of tenant liaison officers has remained the same.

The vast majority of tenants pose no problem at all and Mr Cooney encouraged anyone with any issues to contact the council.