The elected members of Mayo County Council from Ballina approved the raising of a loan of €12.9 million for the provision of a 66-unit housing development in St Patrick’s Estate in Ballina by Clúid Housing Association. Senior executive officer Paul Benson outlined to the members the reason for the raising of this loan. He told the members that the council would raise the loan and hand the money over to Clúid for the scheme, but the council would be reimbursed fully by central government the amount of the loan and any charges that were applied on it. He also informed the members that the tendering process was well under way for the project and that he was still confident that work would be under way on the scheme before the summer.
All members of the committee welcomed the news the scheme was to get underway before the summer and they approved the loan. Fine Gael councillor Michelle Mulherin asked the council executive: “Why can’t the council get this type of funding but Clúid can?” To which Mr Benson explained: “This funding for Clúid comes from a different stream than the normal central government fund, there are only very few projects given approval in the country every year and this was one of them.” Fianna Fáil councillor Johnny O’Malley also pointed out: “My understanding is that this summer, Ballina Town Council is about to undertake an extensive scheme of refurbishment on their own housing stock this May.” This was confirmed by Mr Benson who told the meeting that the town council is funding a €1 million scheme from its own resources this year for refurbishment of stock.
