Demand remains high as Laois performs well on housing 

Laois is continuing to perform well in terms of housing output, the December meeting of Laois County Council was told. 

Chief Executive Michael Rainey has said the council continues to outperform most local authorities in the State in relation to housing. He noted over €2 million had been spent in vacancy refurbishment grants. 

Sinn Fein Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said while it was good to see Laois outperform other local authorities, “unfortunately, the more we are building, the more demand there is,” she said. She said the “new homeless” are those earning over €35,000 income cut off for affordable housing. 

“There is a huge cohort of people out there that are over the €35,000,” said Cllr Dwane Stanley. She said they aren’t eligible for affordable housing and the cost of houses has “gone through the roof”.

Cllr Dwane Stanley said she has people coming to her who are being given notices to quit accommodation. She asked that “we could get that affordable housing scheme back opened and the cost rental.” 

She also asked if the council had any four bedroomed properties with a bedroom downstairs. 

“I have about four or five or six families that are waiting on the four beds,” she said. 

Cllr Dwane Stanley also asked why new apartments earmarked for disabled people were being built with baths. “You can’t expect people in wheelchairs to climb into baths,” she said. 

Finally she asked that the council deal with the fields and the back of O’Moore Place. She said if there is no movement, the council should look at obtaining the land by Compulsory Purchase Order(CPO). 

“That is a blight on the area and we do need to start the process of CPO if we don’t have any progress,” she said. 

Independent Cllr James Kelly noted the town regeneration teams were doing great work improving towns and villages. He noted the council had recorded 708 vacant homes and businesses and he asked about the process of getting them lived in again. 

“How can we speed up the process as a local authority?” he asked. 

Independent Cllr Ben Brennan said housing was his greatest concern. He asked why people couldn’t build along the R430 road. 

Fine Gael Cllr Barry Walsh said dereliction was widespread.  “Ballinakill in particular has a serious problem in a couple of streets… it is really taking away from a great village,” he explained. 

He believed the focus on serviced sites should be intensified. He wanted an update on the masterplan for Abbeyleix. 

Fine Gael Cllr John King was also concerned about dereliction. He believed the only way to manage dereliction was to increase the levies imposed. He too said town teams were working well. 

Cllr King said there should be more options available to people who want to downsize. 

“Quite a few people are living in three bedroom houses but they are on their own,” he said. 

“I know two men that are living downstairs… they can’t go upstairs,” he explained. 

Fianna Fáil Cllr Paddy Bracken asked about the retrofitting programme. He said people living in maisonettes should be prioritised. 

“We should be able to do something for those people… it is shocking we are leaving those people,” he said. 

Independent Cllr Aisling Moran expressed her belief that the council should be building houses directly and on council land. She also wants the council to begin providing services sites in towns and she wanted more use of CPOs to tackle dereliction. 

“There is an awful lot of small towns and villages that are being blighted,” said Cllr Moran. 

She suggested building “little retirement areas” for people who wanted to downsize. 

Fianna Fail Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said the council needs to be ready for the National Planning Framework. She said the county wasn’t recognised last time and “the population has absolutely exploded” without the necessary infrastructure.

“I do think it is really important that we set up a sub committee,” she said.  

Director of Services Angela McEvoy said the housing delivery programme had been very successful in Laois. She said the final figure is expected to be around double the target. She also said the council was looking to bring cost rental into Portlaoise. 

Ms McEvoy said downsizing was something the council was conscious of and she was aware of lots of good examples of retirement villages around the country. 

While there is a lot of vacant property, Ms McEvoy said she wouldn’t be in favour of CPOs for all vacant properties. She did however suggest that the council could look at”flipping” some properties onto the open market.

Ms McEvoy said the council was directly employing contractors to build properties on 12 projects across Laois on council land which should deliver 200 houses. 

She also said the council was doing a residential land audit and she said the council was also preparing for the National Planning Framework.