A city councillor has called for the establishment of a national database to help alleviate the housing crisis by making suitable properties available to each local authority area.
Sinn Féin councillor Cathal Ó Conchúir said this week that the housing crisis could be alleviated by such a database as it would allow people, languishing on local authority housing lists for years, the option of taking up housing in any part of the county or relocate to other areas of the country.
The suggestion comes following a recent meeting of the Galway City Council during which some councillors urged better cooperation between the city authority and Galway County Council so that people on the city housing list could be allocated rural housing. Council officials also informed councillors that people looking for social housing could be included on both the county and city lists.
Cllr Ó Conchúir said: “Although this should not by any means be seen as an alternative to the need for construction of housing, I am certain that there will be some families who see the benefits of moving to smaller communities, smaller schools, better houses and a better quality of life. However, we won’t know if this is possible unless there is some joined-up thinking between our city and county councils as well as organisations such as Rural Resettlement Ireland. Many people in Galway, for instance, have family connections with all of the peripheral communities in the west and some might think of going back to their roots.
“This is an option which should be investigated thoroughly and if even only a small amount of families make the move, it will take some pressure off the housing lists in the country as a whole.”
