Kilcoyne storms out of meeting amid uproar over lack of affordable housing

CASTLEBAR county councillor Michael Kilcoyne walked out of a meeting in exasperation over the lack of progress on affordable housing in his area.

Mayo County Council is preparing an application for an affordable housing scheme for Ballina and Castlebar.

However, Cllr Kilcoyne claimed that the local authority had ‘no interest’ in affordable housing and that there was ‘no point’ in him attending any more meetings of the council’s Housing SPC.

He cited the lack of progress since over 775 expressions of interest were made in affordable housing in a county council survey over a year ago.

“We have acres of a land bank out on the new road out on the new road, and nothing being done about it,” Cllr Kilcoyne remarked, referring to the new N5 dual carriageway.  

Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, Tom Gilligan, estimated that the application for a 12-unit affordable housing scheme in Castlebar would be submitted to the government by the end of the month.

Cllr Kilcoyne claimed that 12 units would be ‘no use’ given that over 700 people had expressed interest in affordable housing.

“There are almost 800 people looking for affordable housing and we haven’t done a damn thing about it,” he exclaimed.

The Independent councillor said that voluntary organisations were much more effective at delivering social and affordable housing.

“We must have 1,200 staff in this local authority, and we can’t apply and get houses built the same as these voluntary organisations.”

Mr Gilligan defended the council’s record on housing, describing them as ‘the leading organisation in the county’ on housing.

He rejected Cllr Kilcoyne’s claim that voluntary organisations were delivering 40 percent of houses, saying that the figure for Mayo was closer to 16 or 17 percent.

The local authority is currently on track to deliver approximately 1,000 houses under the Housing for All Plan by 2026.

“We are absolutely 100 percent delivering, and we will continue to deliver,” said Mr Gilligan, who also revealed that there were 2,656 individuals and Mayo County Council’s housing list and housing transfer list.  

The local authority has applied for and secured an affordable housing scheme for 13 units at a site in Westport.

As the proposed site is not zoned as residential land, it will not be progressed until the adoption of the local area plan.

Mr Gilligan said the council is currently looking at another site on Westport’s Lodge Road, where they intend to build a mix of social and affordable housing.

Responding to questions regarding the level of staffing in the council’s housing department, Mr Gilligan said they had applied to the Department of Housing for nine additional staff.

He also repeatedly told councillors that the local authority had received no target for the delivery of affordable housing under the Housing for All programme.

Westport-based Christy Hyland accused the council of taking ‘the easy option’ by favouring social housing over affordable housing.

The local authority must provide approximately €75,000 per unit for the delivery of an affordable purchase housing scheme.

He later withdrew his comments, which were labelled as ‘outrageous’ by Mr Gilligan.

Cathaoirleach of the SPC, Cllr Patsy O’Brien, said that the local authority should continue to lobby for more affordable housing schemes.

Cllr Kilcoyne interrupted, saying “all we can do is sit and cry, because that’s the way we’re left” before walking out of the meeting.