The cost of building one-off council houses on family owned land is "significantly less" than the cost of purchasing land on the open market and building scheme houses, and is something the Galway County Council needs to start considering.
This is the view of Fianna Fáil Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív, who is calling on the Galway County Council to consider building one-off council houses on the land owned by the family of the housing applicants, in situations where it is available and where it is the preferred choice of the applicant.
Dep Ó Cuív said that by adopting such an approach, it would go some way to "reduce the housing list in Galway". He also note that in recent years, the Galway County Council has built "very few, one-off local authority houses", despite "sites being made available" for these houses. "The cost of the land itself is minimal – a nominal fee of €100 is the norm," he said, "therefore the cost of building these houses is significantly less than the cost of purchasing land on the open market and building scheme houses."
The Cornamona based TD said there would be "a huge social dividend" to building such one-off houses. "It means applicants can be near family and be a support to older parents, and in turn get support from them," he said. "The obsession of planners with pushing people into towns and cities, often does not give good social outcomes, particularly where people are being put into socially segregated, congregated, housing estates. I’m calling on Galway County Council to recognise the benefits of allowing people to build on family land and to allow for its provision."
