‘Homes for our own people’ damaged by Mayo fire in town centre

Significant damage has been wreaked on two buildings earmarked for social housing in the centre of Ballina. A third building suffered heat and smoke damage.

The 31 unit social housing development is "so badly needed in town centre locations like this” as there are currently 631 people waiting on the housing list for the Ballina municipal district, Catherine McConnell, Director of Services for Ballina Municipal District told Rachael English on RTÉ Radio One’s The News at One this lunchtime. 

READ MORE: ‘Profound disappointment’ - Mayo County Council reacts to town centre fire

She confirmed that the Council intends to continue with the social housing development “but this has certainly set back the timelines and probably increased the costs that are associated with providing these.”

Responding to a question about claims that the buildings in question were going to be used to house asylum seekers, the Mayo County Council Director of Services said:

“I can absolutely confirm that was never the intended plan for this site. The Council purchased these properties in 2023 solely for the intention of providing new housing units to meet our growing housing list in the Ballina area. There was never, ever a plan or proposal to use these for anything other than homes for our own people.

READ MORE: Mayo emergency services respond to town centre fire

There was unanimous support for it across the elected members, and where we did not have a single objection as part of the public consultation, we are so disappointed that something like this would happen.”

Fine Gael Senator Mark Duffy has spoken out against what he termed the “misinformation and disinformation online.”

“It is an insight into the anarchists who are purposely undermining public confidence in any project through disinformation like this. A lie was circulated around the country before the fire was extinguished.

“There is no discounting the challenges facing immigration in Ireland currently but the amount of disinformation that is constantly spread can have fatal consequences and people must be more mindful of this.”