Mayo councillors want Government to 'weed out' non-performing housing bodies

A MAYO councillor has called on the Government to 'weed out' non-performing approved housing bodies to ensure that only those who are delivering houses remain in the market.

There was huge frustration among councillors at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council at what they saw as approved housing bodies not delivering housing projects in the county.

Eight approved housing bodies were invited to give a presentation and update councillors on housing projects they were undertaking in Mayo. Only three housing bodies – Tuath Housing Association, Cooperative Housing and Mayo Mental Health – attended which angered councillors who stated it showed disrespect to the elected members.

Tuath Housing Association were criticised for the handling of housing projects in Castlebar and Newport which remain unoccupied following a dispute with the builder.

Castlebar-based councillor Ger Deere said he was disappointed in the housing bodies who did not attend and felt they were not helping the council in delivering houses.

“Housing bodies were set up to help county councils and local authorities to develop with the delivery of houses but that is not happening. It needs to be streamlined a lot more which is where the government needs to come in and look at all the housing bodies which were set up and look at those who are performing well and those who are not.

“Housing bodies have a bad name with Tuath in particular around here with the whole debacle in Chestnut Grove [in Castlebar] and Newport. You have loads of staff so get it sorted out if there are problems but it is landed back on the council to deliver. We all know there is a huge housing crisis but we need to weed out some of them that are not performing,” he said.

Westport-based councillor Peter Flynn was also critical of the record of housing bodies to deliver and claimed that the town councils were much better at it despite having a small team to do it.

“There wasn't a year that went by that we didn't deliver some form of housing within the town council with a team of four people. Yet I look at Tuath and I don't want to have a go at you but you have 215 employees and I am looking at the record in Mayo. There is the fiasco in Newport where you have 22 units that are sitting vacant in the middle of a housing crisis.

“There is a huge chasm of what the council are doing and what housing bodies are doing and everyone is pointing fingers. Unfortunately the real victims are the people who are looking for housing and in my view the system as it stands are entirely broken. In my view all of this should wholly be in the control of the councils and we should not absolve ourselves of responsibility,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Al McDonnell commented that the projects undertaken by the housing bodies in Mayo will only make a 'modest contribution' to the housing crisis and questioned the length of time it takes to develop projects.

Martin Loughran, Director of Development with Tuath Housing Association defended the track record of the organisation and he would stand over their record of delivering housing all over Ireland. He said in relation to the situation in Chestnut Grove in Castlebar where eight units remain unoccupied, he said they had worked with the builder who was undergoing financial problems to complete the project but it could not be resolved.

The five housing bodies who were criticised for not attending the meeting were the Peter McVerry Trust, Cluid Housing, Sophia Housing, Western Care and Focus Ireland.