‘What planet is the government living in?’ - Hyland says working couples don’t qualify for social housing

WESTPORT-based county councillor Christy Hyland has claimed couples will need to earn less than the minimum wage to qualify for social housing.

Cllr Hyland said that couples will need to be earning €312 a week, or approximately €7.80 per hour, to avoid breaching the minimum income threshold.

As of January 1, a household comprising two adults with two children must earn less than €33,000 to qualify for social housing.

Cllr Hyland described the ongoing housing shortage in Mayo as ‘a disaster’ and called for the Department of Housing to raise the social housing income bands for couples with children.

“What planet is the department and the government living in?” he asked.

Cllr Hyland also called on Mayo County Council to speed up the delivery of affordable housing at a 50-unit social housing development on Westport’s Golf Course Road.

Castlebar-based Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne echoed his concerns, saying that working couples would be unable to qualify for social housing.

Mayo County Council’s Housing SPC Cathaoirleach, Cllr Patsy O’Brien, insisted that the issue of income bands was a matter for national government rather than the county council.

Affordable

THE council has sought approval for 10 percent of the houses to be designated as affordable. Further discussions are to take place on the matter.

The local authority has already received approval in principle for an affordable housing at a site scheme near Westport Quay.

It is also looking at another side on Westport’s Lodge Road, where it intends to deliver a mix of affordable and social housing.

The council estimates that it will deliver another 738 houses by 2026 under the Housing For All programme.

Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, Tom Gilligan, told members of the council’s Housing SPC that it had acquired 0.9 hectares of land in Castlebar, as well as sites in Lahardane, Ballina and Bangor-Erris.

Discussions around acquiring other potential sites around Mayo are also ongoing.

Mr Gilligan also told councillors that 222 applications for the Croí Cónaithe grant scheme had been submitted to the local authority.

The government scheme allows successful applicants maximum grants of €50,000 to renovate a vacant property, rising to €70,000 for a derelict property.

Ninety-nine of these applications have been approved to date, 18 of which were in Ballina electoral area, with 24 in the Castlebar area, 39 in Claremorris-Swinford, and 18 in Westport-Belmullet.