The Galway City Council must give due consideration to the people living in neighbouring houses, when it comes to allocating homes in social housing schemes under construction on the Monivea Road and in Belmont on the Dublin Road, according to a Galway city councillor.
Independent councillor Declan McDonnell said that many people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, who lived on McDonagh, Parnell and Kent Avenue, Mervue, were concerned about how their lives might be affected by the new estate being built over their back walls by Greenway Properties.
Cllr McDonnell said; “These houses were built 60 years ago and many of the residents have been living there since. The Galway City Council, in allocating the new houses, must be conscious that the lives of these elderly people who have been living there all their lives must not be disrupted or threatened, at this stage of their lives, having contributed to the country for so long, they shouldn’t have to live in fear.”
He pointed out that councillors had tried to have some affordable houses included in the new development, but because it had been purchased with social fund money, the Department had ruled out this option.
Cllr McDonnell said; “But from now on, social housing must be shared right across the city — and not just concentrated, as it has been, on the east side of the city — and we have to get affordable housing off the ground.
“There is an ideal site on the east of the city for affordable housing, which is owned by the Galway City Council, and I am trying to get that as the only type of houses that will be built there,” added Cllr McDonnell, who chairs the Galway City Council’s Housing and Social Inclusion Strategic Policy Committee.
Cllr McDonnell said he has also sought a balance in allocation of the new houses which are under construction for Co-Op Ireland in Belmont, which are also to be completed shortly.
