'People of Mayo let down by housing failures' - Fine Gael
by Caoimhín Rowland
The people of Mayo have been let down by a failure to provide housing, Fine Gael Deputy Michael Ring asserted at the launch of his party’s council election campaign in the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide.
The long-serving Westport-based TD, who also served as a county and urban councillor, explained the concerns raised to him at a constituency clinic in Westport earlier that day.
“Of the 32 people we dealt with, 14 or 15 of them were housing related,” he noted.
Deputy Ring elaborated: "Mayo County Council has failed them on housing. Go back to the 1990s when we had no money, no Europe, nothing, and we were building more houses then. There were 100 new homes built in Westport and Castlebar as well as other towns."
He declared in a tirade directed towards the local authority that his own party in power is also responsible for many issues arising when it comes to housing.
“The government is to blame because we haven’t controlled the county councils. They don’t want to get involved and if I was minister in the morning first thing I’d do is take housing away from the council altogether.
“I’d set up somebody who is going to take over housing and take it away from the council, set up a housing agency,” he added.
Deputy Ring, who has recently made headlines nationally for questioning government policy on immigration policy, continued: “When you bring in 120,000 plus people, they never talk about the other 40 or 50 thousand people coming in with work permits. You have nearly 200,000 people in the country and the county council going off and buying up every bit of property.”
Currently, there are less than 30 properties to rent on Daft.ie in Mayo and only six in the county town of Castlebar.
“You cannot get rented accommodation in any part of the county today and Mayo County Council's new approach if you show up homeless is to send you up to a nursing home in Charlestown with 20 or 30 more people.
"When TDs were in the council they kept manners on the county council. The biggest single mistake we ever made was the abolition of the town councils in 2014.”
Ring, referring to the Local Government Act signed off by then Fine Gael Minister Phil Hogan, hit out: “Go back to Westport, we built housing in the town council, we created affordable sites, community sites and the other thing you forget is we have more staff in the council now. But there’s no general operatives, everyone is a director of service or an engineer.”
Councillor Donna Sheridan concurred with Michael Ring’s sentiments, speaking about approved housing bodies who are designated to provide 40% of council housing.
“We invited them into Mayo County Council to explain why they haven’t delivered, but the likes of Father Peter McVerry Trust haven’t completed what was promised.”
Since Fine Gael took hold of government in 2011, there has been an increase of 10,000 people in Ireland homeless. On Christmas Day last year, almost 100 people were in emergency accommodation in County Mayo alone.
Currently there are 1,235 people on the housing list in this county.
Councillor Jarlath Munnelly said the county council has not been engaging when applying for affordable housing schemes. “I don’t know why our other colleagues in power (Fianna Fáil and Independents) aren’t outraged by this.”
Councillor Peter Flynn referenced ‘a colleague in the council who said that the last 10 years in the council were the worst he’s ever experienced’.
Fine Gael is running 15 candidates in the county in a bid to wrestle control of Mayo County Council after 10 years of the council being controlled by Fianna Fáil and independents.
Deputy Alan Dillon stated: “We vote to give €5 billion to local authorities, we have a problem with the accountability and the dissemination of that money.
“Through the rural community development fund Michael Ring set up, the time it takes for Mayo County Council to implement all of that, spend the money, it could be the next election cycle.
“Who is responsible? Is it the director of service, the county manager? At times they wash their hands of it and blame government.”
Michael Ring said: “We have millions outstanding in Mayo. Five years ago I allocated money that has not been spent. The local authority has to be reformed or got rid of."
Councillor Neill Cruise said: “The budget has gone from just over a €100 million to €201 million over the past 10 years."
In an appeal to the Oireachtas members in attendance, the Foxford-based representative said local authorities should be accountable to the Public Accounts Committee.
* Pictured at the launch of the Mayo Fine Gael party’s local election campaign are, from left, Councillor Tom Connolly, Councillor Cyril Burke, Councillor Peter Flynn, Councillor John O’Hara, Swinford candidate Antoinette Peyton, Ballyhaunis candidate Alma Gallagher, Councillor Ger Deere, Westport candidate Keira Keogh, Councillor Neil Cruise, Councillor Donna Sheridan, Councillor Gerry Coyle, Tiernaur candidate Pat Chambers and Councillor Jarlath Munnelly. PHOTO: TOMMY MURPHY/TEEM LENS