Efforts by FG & FF election candidates to delay building of social housing in Dun Laoghaire unacceptable

Labour candidate for Dun Laoghaire, Cllr. Deirdre Kingston has expressed outrage at attempts by two general elections candidates to delay the building of social housing in Dún Laoghaire. At a local area meeting in Dun Laoghaire last night, Cormac Devlin (FF) and Barry Ward (FG) both tried to pass motions to delay and defer the build of social houses in Loughlinstown.

Cllr. Kingston said:

“Last night we discussed the disposal of land to Cooperative Housing Ireland, to allow them to build 42 social and cooperative houses in Loughlinstown for families on the social housing list.

“What we saw was a raft of motions trying to delay the build. And we were clearly told by the manager that if the motions were passed, a new planning permission could be required, which would delay construction even more. Any issues raised by current residents, such as traffic management, will be dealt with once the build is over.

“I am really shocked and so disappointed at what went on at the meeting last night. Here we have two general election candidates, Barry Ward and Cormac Devlin who will no doubt lament the lack of housing in our county in the course of their election campaigns. Their respective parties will put forward housing policies, and their party leaders will say what they think the electorate want to hear about solving the housing crisis. In fact, we had the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy out to Dún Laoghaire recently and we discussed the urgent need to build houses.

“Yet, when it comes to the crunch, and when we have to show leadership locally, they bottle it. Both candidates tried every trick in the book to delay this build but I am glad to say they were voted down by the majority of councillors in the chamber, who voted in support of those families on the housing list.

“National pronouncements have to be matched locally, with the building of actual houses. We have to support these builds if we are ever going to improve the state of our housing lists, and help families who need a roof over their heads.

“The Labour Party has supported every single social housing proposal in front of us at Council and we will continue to do so. In fact, the cooperative ownership element of this scheme, which will house eight families, was driven from the very start by Cllr. Denis O’Callaghan. We will not play politics with people on the housing list. We will do the right thing.”