Housing crisis dominates Plenary meeting of Council

The ongoing housing crisis was the dominant point of concern at the recent Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council in Dungarvan. 

On Thursday, November 14, Cllr Conor McGuinness (Sinn Féin) raised a motion to increase and accelerate the delivery of public housing.

Cllr McGuinness said: "This is incredibly important across the stage but it's specifically pronounced here in parts of County Waterford. 

"We haven't had a single affordable house delivered outside the city in the county of Waterford, and we're crying out for them. 

"It's particularly pronounced in a number of parts of County Waterford. I'm talking about Dunmore East, Bonmahon, Dungarvan, Ardmore. Areas where there's additional demand for private housing for sale. Areas where young people are unable to get access to housing. 

He added: "We also need to see a huge increase in the amount of social housing."

Housing Minister

Noting the upcoming election, Cllr McGuinness stated: "There may or may not be a new Housing Minister in situ in the next couple of weeks, but in any case, Minister Darragh O'Brien is the minister at the moment [...] and he's the person that we should direct this to."

Fellow councillors welcomed the motion, including Cllrs John Hearne, Catherine Burke and Social Democrat Mary Roche. 

Cllr Hearne spoke on the detrimental effects of housing insecurity, saying: "Whatever party gets in, a home is the most important thing that anybody can have, if they can just get that right it would be a huge thing."

Cllr Roche added a proposal to shorten the length of time it takes to put public housing through the Department process. 

She said: "The length of time, minimum two years, is absolutely outrageous in a housing emergency."

The motion was passed unanimously.