Doughiska families facing eviction plead for urgent help to save their homes

The residents of Caislean Thorlaigh, who include single-parent families, children with additional needs and people with serious medical conditions, have appealed for urgent political intervention.

The families received Notices of Termination on October 2, requiring them to leave their homes by late April or May 2027.

Correspondence seen by the Galway City Tribune indicates that the landlord had been prepared to sell the 12-apartment block to the local authority, potentially allowing the eight families to remain in their homes.

The Tenant in Situ initiative allows local authorities to buy private rental properties where tenants are at serious risk of homelessness following a landlord’s decision to sell.

“In September 2026, Galway City Council informed the landlord that it was pulling out of the purchase under the ‘Tenant in Situ’ scheme, citing ‘an over saturation of social housing in the Doughiska area’,” the correspondence said.

A spokesperson for the United Tenants of Caislean Thorlaigh group said some of the families have lived in the community since 2011.

“We have lived in this community for many years and we are fully integrated, active members of the local area,” the spokesperson said.

The residents cannot understand the decision, particularly as four of the 12 apartments in the development are currently vacant.

“By acquiring the block, the Council would not only save eight well-established families from homelessness, but would also immediately gain four turn-key, vacant properties to house other families currently on the emergency waiting list,” they said.

It follows almost three years of uncertainty, after they first received notices of termination in November 2023.

“Since the end of 2023, we have been living in a permanent state of severe anxiety, extreme uncertainty and constant fear for our future, which has taken a drastic toll on the mental health of both adults and children,” they said.

The group said remaining in Doughiska was particularly important for families with children in local schools and for residents who rely on established medical and community supports.

“Doughiska is our home. Everything we need to live is here: our children’s schools, our doctors, our jobs and our long-established community support network,” the spokesperson said.

Among the households are two single mothers with school-going children, as well as families with children who have additional needs and residents with serious health conditions.

The possibility of having to leave has placed an additional burden on some of the most vulnerable people in the block.

“The extreme stress of facing homelessness is an unbearable and destructive health burden on these vulnerable individuals,” they said.

They are now seeking an urgent review of the council’s decision and a meeting with elected representatives before the opportunity to acquire the block is lost.

“If Galway City Council upholds its refusal, the landlord will list the properties on the private market, and this window of opportunity to save our homes will be permanently lost,” the tenants said.

“We appeal to your sense of public responsibility and human empathy to prevent an avoidable humanitarian disaster within your constituency.”

At the East Ward Area committee meeting, Cllr Cheevers said the residents had asked to meet him and were concerned about becoming homeless.

Speaking afterwards, he raised wider concerns about what he described as an “embargo” affecting Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) purchasing properties.

“There has been an embargo put on by the Chief Executive in relation to AHBs buying individual houses in estates that would already be built,” he said to the Galway City Tribune.

“The council themselves are trying to buy these estates because they failed miserably themselves with their own output of actually developing housing.

“What has happened is he (Chief Executive) has decided to stop the housing bodies buying them so that the council can buy them.”

He questioned whether the council had sufficient resources to manage additional properties itself.

“The only way housing will work here is collaboration between the local authority, housing bodies and also the developers,” Cllr Cheevers said.

“We don’t have the resources within the local authority to manage these new houses. We are struggling the way we are.

“The housing bodies have mechanisms, structures and management in place.”

Cllr Cheevers also warned about the possible consequences for agreements already reached between developers and housing bodies.

“Developers have made commitments with housing bodies to develop units and they had deals done for the housing bodies,” he said.

“What I think they will end up doing, if this continues, is they will end up selling the houses on the private market.”

Cllr Cheevers said he had also raised the wider issue with Housing Minister James Browne the previous Friday.

“I spoke to Minister Browne last Friday and he was very concerned,” he said.

“He hadn’t been made aware of this; he didn’t know about this.”

Responding at the meeting, a council official disputed Cllr Cheevers’ description of the council’s approach as an embargo.

“It’s not an embargo. We have taken a new direction,” the official said.

The official said the council had the buying power to purchase turnkey properties itself and that the approach had been discussed at a housing taskforce meeting.

The meeting was told the council believed the approach would help “drive down prices” and bring additional housing supply.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme