Government accused of covering up figures as almost 200 people homeless in Mayo

THE government has been accused of covering up the number of people currently homeless as 133 adults and 65 children are currently homeless in the county.

The figures, provided to The Mayo News by Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, Tom Gilligan, comes as Sinn Féin have demanded that the government publish the number of people accessing emergency accommodation before the end of the election campaign.

The Department of Housing publishes the number of people accessing emergency accommodation on the last Friday of each month. According to the latest figures, 14,760 people were accessing emergency accommodation during September 23-29, including 126 adults in Mayo. The latest figures are due to be published this Friday, November 29, on the day of the general election.

Sinn Féin general election candidate Rose Conway-Walsh said that the lack of emergency accommodation in certain parts of Mayo was having ‘a severe impact’.

On October 9, 156 people were living in emergency accommodation in either Ballinrobe, Charlestown, Kiltimagh, Knock or Swinford. A further 41 were accommodated in Castlebar, plus three in Killala, 12 in Westport and Mulranny. Mayo County Council is also accommodating two people in Athlone and Roscommon.

“There are so many people homeless within the county it’s gotten to the stage now that there isn’t an hour in the day where somebody isn’t contacting us in the offices in Ballina and Belmullet and from all over the county who are in precarious positions in regard to housing and people who are homeless,” Deputy Conway-Walsh told The Mayo News.

“I have been dealing with people in Ballina and Belmullet. There is no homeless accommodation in this side of the county, so we are asking single mothers with children to take their children out of school and go to Charlestown into emergency accommodation. It’s having a very severe impact in Mayo.”

Mayo County Council is expected to deliver 170 social housing units this year and 205 in 2026.

From the start of 2024 until November 20, the local authority received 411 applications were received for individual houses. Of these, 383 were granted permission and 28 were refused.

There are also 27 leases in place with the council under the Repair and Lease scheme, which allows successful applicants to obtain a grant to refurbish a property which they must then lease it back to the local authority.

Mayo County Council has approved 432 out of 659 applicants for the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which allows eligible applicants up to €70,000 to refurbish a property for their own use or to rent.

Deputy Conway-Walsh accused the government of not treating the housing shortage ‘like an emergency’.

If elected, her party has pledged to invest €39 billion to build 300,000 houses in a term of government.

She also said Sinn Féin would change the planning system to make it quicker to deliver new housing by giving more power to local authorities and Affordable Housing Bodies to build new housing.

Deputy Conway Walsh said that affordable housing schemes should not be just confined to Westport and Castlebar.

Five houses out of 50 new units on Westport’s Golf Course Road have been allocated for affordable purchase. A site in Castlebar with planning permission and the potential to deliver 70 units is also being assessed for suitability under the Affordable Housing Fund.

Sinn Féin has also pledged to phase out the Help to Buy Scheme if elected. The scheme, which gives financial assistance to first-time buyers, has been blamed for inflating the cost of housing.

In Mayo, 1,014 people have purchased a house with the Help to Buy scheme, which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have pledged to expand.

“If the Help To Buy scheme was working we wouldn’t have in excess of 14,000 people homeless right now and I wouldn’t be dealing every day in our offices with people who are being made homeless in Mayo and people who are living in overcrowded accommodation,” Deputy Conway-Walsh said.

MORE: An exclusive interview with Mayo TD and Minister of State for Housing, Alan Dillon