School to lose 16 pupils as effect of stalled rural house builds bites

A claim that there hasn't been a social house built in Ballynacargy in 30 years was made at the first meeting of the new County Council by Cllr Johnnie Penrose.

Cllr Penrose asked what the position is with regard to the purchase of land in villages such as Ballynacargy for use as sites for social housing.

“The school is losing 16 pupils this year and there's a danger that we will lose a teacher due to the lack of housing. And there is land available in Ballynacargy - zonable land, and I would urge the chief executive to try and purchase the land for social, affordable and private housing. I think it's very important that we look at that this year and try and get that through,” Cllr Penrose said.

Support for Cllr Penrose's claim came from party colleague, Cllr Denis Leonard: “There has been hardly a house built in any of our rural towns or villages since 2007-2008 - either affordable, social or private,” he told the meeting.

As a result, he said, schools which were built to cater for larger populations are now “going down”.

“But also what's happening is shops are closing down, these towns are becoming unsustainable. So if we are going to survive in rural Ireland into the future, we can't be building the amount of houses we are building in Mullingar and Athlone to the exclusion of our rural areas,” Cllr Leonard said.

Continuing, he said there is a need for some sort of fair balance: “Half of us live in rural Ireland, and the problem we're facing is people who grew up in Killucan, Kinnegad, Rochfortbridge or Ballynacargy or whatever don't have the option to live in that area anymore. They have to move to a completely different area, which means different schools, a different GAA club. It's not what they want. They want to be able to have the opportunity to live in the community they grew up in.“

Responding, council CEO Barry Kehoe said the council is open to considering the provision of smaller schemes in villages where there is a need for additional residential units.

Mr Kehoe said there doesn't appear to be a huge need for such schemes at the moment, but at the same time there was some need and it was an important need. He said the council was open to schemes in smaller towns and villages, but the capital resources to deliver projects are currently be tied up. As a consequence, if land was acquired, it would, he said, probably have to sit there for a while until council got through the backlog of other projects.