Mayor says 'Limerick is facing a housing emergency' ahead of vote on modular homes

MAYOR John Moran has said that in his view, Limerick is facing a "housing emergency".

It comes with councillors this afternoon set to vote on a resolution which could in effect veto his plans to construct hundreds of modular homes in Boro Park.

The plans for the green space in Janesboro have proven unpopular among residents who do not want to lose a green space in their area.

But Mayor Moran - whose plans for these temporary homes formed the part of his successful election manifesto - has pointed to the housing shortage in Limerick and across the country.

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In a statement this Monday morning, he did not mention the Boro Park plans by name, but rather referenced "a series of critical votes".

As well as the vote on Boro Park later this Monday, members of the metropolitan district will be voting on plans for 13 homes on two sites in Ros Mor, which like Boro Park, is on the southside of Limerick city.

On top of this, metropolitan councillors are to decide whether 30 apartments can be built on Mary Street in the city centre, and 57 at Toppins Field near Southill.

“Limerick is in a housing emergency. This is not a political slogan—it is a fact,” Mayor Moran said this Monday.

“We have been delivering only a fraction of the homes we need. The result is a growing gap of thousands of homes that is affecting families, workers and young people right across our city.”

He pointed to data showing that Limerick has delivered significantly fewer homes than required, with recent Government analysis placing the local authority at or near the bottom of national public housing delivery rankings.

“Over the past number of years, across both public and private housing we have built roughly one-third of the total number of homes required. That is the awful reality we must now confront and correct.”

The directly elected mayor says Limerick needs to build 4,000 homes-a-year to catch up on what he describes as a "last decade of under-delivery".

He said in practical terms this would mean completing every year the delivery of 14 sites of the same scale as the LDA Gasworks site on the Dock Road. On the Gasworks site on Dock Road, the LDA proposes to deliver 285 new homes by building apartment blocks of up to eight storeys.

The Mayor emphasised that the decisions before councillors this week will be critical in showing that they too are determined to play their part so that Limerick can begin to close that gap.

“Having set up new delivery units and embraced his calls for innovation in housing, officials have been doing all they can to speed up delivery. The question now facing councillors is straightforward: do they also want to help accelerate housing delivery, or do they want to make it harder to build the homes people need," he asked.

The Mayor particularly raised concerns about new proposals that could mean the majority of councillors aborting public housing projects at an early stage of development, before full design, analysis and consultation have even taken place.

“Every legitimate project must be properly examined, improved where needed, and allowed to be assessed through the planning process. But we cannot afford to abort what could be projects delivering very valuable housing before we even understand their full potential or impact," he added.

Mayor Moran stressed that solving the housing emergency will require collective leadership and a willingness to embrace change.

“This is not about one project or one site. It is about whether we are prepared to act at the scale and speed required to meet the needs of our people.

We cannot continue to fall further behind while demand grows. Delay is not a neutral choice, it has real consequences for people trying to find a home.”