Families finding it hard to stay in the Gaeltacht in Waterford  

People “born and reared in Ring” cannot buy houses.

That is according to Councillor Tom Cronin at the June sitting of the Dungarvan-Lismore District Council.

Cllr Cronin was raising a concern about the delivery of service land sites acquired by the council for housing.

“People born and reared down in Ring cannot buy houses down there at the moment. It's every bit as bad as Ardmore, and Ardmore is every bit as bad as Stradbally and all the way down the coast, and I can understand that.

“But we have the land, why are we not trying to get families living where they should be? We should be pushing this harder and harder, and I just hope the councillors are behind me on this one,” said Cllr Cronin.

He said there was a “commitment” given by the council to progress the Ardmore sites for the end of 2024, and that is still not done.

Cllr Cronin said it was getting “embarrassing.” Senior Architect at Waterford City and County Council Walter Holden said there was no progress on service sites in An Rinn.

“Look, we are not in a position to deliver any service sites in the that process at the moment. All local authorities are working with the department to come up with a process to that,” said Mr Holden.

On the topic of Ardmore, Mr Holden said that staff changes had slowed them down, but they are going ahead.

And they are reviewing housing delivery across the county.

“As discussed here the last day, areas in general, and we are looking at Housing for All 2.0 or whatever you want to call it. We are looking at full delivery across the whole county. I think that was said on the last day. I still stand over that.

We are looking at a full review where we are going to deliver across the country for our next four-year plan,” said Mr Holden.