Condition of vacant council houses 'a disgrace' says Dollard

Some of the vacant social housing units in Westmeath are a "disgrace" and would be placed on the derelict sites register if they weren’t owned by Westmeath County Council.

That’s according to Cllr Mick Dollard, who made the stinging remark at the September meeting of the council, which was held online. The independent representative said that at the moment there are a "large number" of vacant local authority houses in Westmeath.

"We hear from the chief executive about vacant houses and the quick turnover in County Westmeath. I can’t accept that. I go up to local authority housing estates in Mullingar all the time and I see vacant houses that have been there for 12 or 18 months.

"Some of them are a disgrace, quite frankly. They are a disgrace. If they were in a private housing estate, there would be derelict site orders placed on the owners.

"I have to say that Westmeath County Council are responsible in no small way for this. The reason is that they transferred a lot of people from Raithin, Farran and the various Granges out to new housing estates, and the houses they left are now vacant.

"The question I have is why weren’t those new houses allocated to people who were on the approved housing list. It’s an important question and I haven’t got an answer to it yet," he said.

Cllr Dollard was speaking after he and his fellow councillors were given a presentation on the government’s new €40bn Housing For All plan.

He said that he has been a member of the council for 37 years and seen a lot of documents of that type.

"They are glossy documents, look well and are often a kneejerk reaction to what the media and what people are saying about homelessness and housing.

"I looked at all 155 pages of this document and have to say that it is very scarce on details."

When it comes to the provision of social housing, Cllr Dollard says that the plan won’t apply to many low earning households who are just over the income thresholds for inclusion on the social housing list.

"If they can’t get on the housing list, this document means nothing to them whatsoever," he said.