Galway county councillors have spoken out against the size of loan applied by the council for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan Scheme.
Director of services in the housing section, Jean Brann, asked councillors to approve an amount of €10 million to fund housing loans to persons providing accommodation for themselves under the RIHLS.
Despite agreeing to Ms Brann’s request, councillors asked why the council was not requesting more funding.
Tuam area councillor Karey McHugh said this scheme was “last chance saloon” for many people and the amount was “good enough”.
Cllr McHugh said: “There are an awful lot of people living in rented accommodation and cannot save for a deposit because of the levels of rent. [The amount of €10 million] is not good enough. Are we only going to facilitate 50 families?”
Fine Gael councillor Joe Byrne said he had a number of constituents enquiring about the scheme.
“Are we agreeing to 50 houses for €250,000? I have already 12 people asking to get [their application] through here and there are 40 councillors here [so how many are asking for this scheme]. If we agree to this amount, can we go back in three months and ask for more?"
It was also revealed that the council received 99 applications for the scheme with 36 approved in principle.
