There is fear that the management of social and affordable housing is moving away from the remit of the local authorities in Ireland and into the hands of ‘regional agencies’.
A recent article in a national newspaper which alluded to the move towards new ‘regional agencies’ sparked fears in several of the members of Kilkenny County Council this week who voiced their concerns at the monthly meeting of the council.
Labour Party Councillor Ann Phelan said, “the idea that the responsibility of housing is moving away from the local authority is very worrying. This is the first that I have ever heard of housing agencies taking control of this area and I for one am very concerned.
She pointed out the local authorities are always the first point of contact for people and this has always been the case.
“The sector is not without its problems. There are houses in areas where people don’t want them and in some cases the houses being offered to people are unsuitable to their needs. But all of these difficulties considered, we are very well capable of dealing with housing. It is despicable what is happening. We are the people with the expertise in housing at this stage and we should be left to deal with it.
“It appears to me that this article is alluding to the establishment of regional quangos which is unacceptable to me,” she added.
Cllr Michael O’ Brien added, “there are two-and-a-half thousand people looking for local authority housing in Kilkenny alone and the traditional method of acquiring a house is gone. There appears to be no policy now to address the needs of social housing.”
Cllr Marie Fitzpatrick agreed and said, “this is the beginning of the end of local authorities — local authorities as we know them will be gone,” she predicted.
Senior engineer Philip O’ Neill told the members that local government has changed since 2002.
“There is no full information on this new property body and we don’t know where this statement came from. There was no consultation with anyone in this local authority on new regional bodies to manage social housing.”
Cllr Paul Cuddihy added that civil servants in Dublin might like to simplify local government by abolishing it.
