‘Looking after our own’: Mayo County Council reveals 74% of social housing list are Irish citizens
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According to the Director of Services for Housing in Mayo, Catherine McConnell, 74% of households on the social housing list are Irish citizens, countering claims that a huge proportion of the list is made up of non-nationals.
On a Thursday afternoon in Castlebar, the profile of those on the social housing list in Mayo was laid bare.
The Director of Services for Housing in Mayo, Catherine McConnell provided members of the Housing SPC with a detailed breakdown of the social housing list.
One of the big talking points was the percentage of those on the list that are Irish citizens.
Ms McConnell explained that 74% of households on the list are Irish citizens. The next largest group is citizens of other European Economic Area countries (14%), followed by UK citizens (8%). She noted that the figures counter the impression that a huge proportion of the list is made up of non-nationals.
Cllr Peter Flynnsaid the figures disproved claims “that we’re not looking after our own.” He said 92% of those on the list are Irish, EEA or UK citizens.
He criticised what he termed as “this right-wing cause that goes out there all the time that we all that we’re not looking after our own” and said “it's important that the message is not factually correct. What we're saying here is 74% on the list are Irish people.”
Cllr Harry Barrett said immigration was a negligible factor and that “it’s all about supply.” Noting that homelessness figures were rising month on month, he described the system as “dysfunctional,” but said this was no fault of council staff.
Cllr Michael Kilcoyne asked how many of those listed as Irish citizens were naturalised rather than born in Ireland, saying it could distort the figures. He stressed that he was not anti-immigration.
The discussion in the Housing SPC comes against the backdrop of a motion by Cllr Deirdre Lawless at the monthly County Council meeting two weeks ago, where she sought “the percentage of all social housing allocations made to each nationality and citizenship grouping in each of the past ten years and details of the ten largest nationality groups represented on the Social Housing Waiting List and among social housing allocations, both currently and over the past ten years”.
At that meeting, the Council committed to bringing the requested figures to the next monthly meeting of the County Council members.
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