Castlebar councillors agree not to send families to east Mayo emergency accommodation

Castlebar councillors have agreed not to send homeless families living in the county town to an emergency accommodation shelter 40km away in east Mayo.

Mayo County Council are phasing out the use of hotels and B&Bs to meet emergency accommodation needs and recently set up an emergency accommodation hub in Charlestown which can accommodate up to 100 people.

However, councillors in the Castlebar Municipal District agreed to make it a policy of the local housing office not to send families in the municipal district to the Charlestown hub as it was deemed too far away.

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The issue was raised by Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne who said it was not acceptable that young children were being sent to Charlestown when they had to go to school in Castlebar. He proposed that the Castlebar Municipal District discontinue its association with the emergency accommodation in Charlestown.

“It is not reasonable to be sending people over to Charlestown,” he said and his motion was seconded by Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin.

When asked by Cathaoirleach of the Municipal District, Cllr Donna Sheridan where families were to go if there was no accommodation in Castlebar, Cllr Kilcoyne responded there is accommodation and it was the local authorities responsibility to house people.

“I am sorry. There are a lot of houses around the place that are vacant and available,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Ger Deere agreed that there were houses which were CPO’d for the N5 road project which are available and believed that it would not take long for them to be made available to live in.

Independent councillor Harry Barrett feared that people in Castlebar would soon be facing destitution because of the lack of availability of affordable rent and felt something radical was needed.

“I am getting call after call from working families who cannot afford their rent and are getting a notice to quit and have nowhere to go. I am very scared where we are going and unless we take radical action along the lines of what Clr Kilcoyne is saying we will be left in a precarious situation when it comes to affordable accommodation in this area,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke said he agreed with the thrust of what Cllr Kilcoyne said but proposed that instead of discontinuing all association with the Charlestown hub, families should be prioritised and not allowed to move to Charlestown.

“Where we have a family and kids are going to school that has to be prioritised locally and in that instance I will tell the officials you cannot move families when kids are in school in Castlebar,” he said.

Cllr Kilcoyne said he agreed with what he proposed and there was agreement among all the councillors that families should not be taken out of their local area and sent to Charlestown.