Mayo councillor says faith in housing system is eroding

Independent councillor Patsy O’Brien has warned that public faith in the housing system is fading in Mayo, as families on middle incomes get no help and pressure on services grows.

The Robeen-based representative was speaking at Monday’s meeting of Mayo County Council.

He backed a motion from Aontú councillor Deirdre Lawless seeking social housing list data broken down by nationality.

He said, however, that the bigger issue was the number of migrants arriving in the county without matching investment in services.

Councillor O’Brien said 3,993 Ukrainians had come to Mayo since the outbreak of the war.

A war-torn country had to be helped, he said, but the Government had not expanded infrastructure to cope.

Hospitals and schools had not grown in line with the population, he said.

Ten per cent of the county’s population was non-national at the last census, and he did not know what the next one would show.

The council was meeting housing targets, he said. But “with the amount of people who have come into this country, you are fighting a losing battle”.

He said the State could not afford to bring in so many people. That was not fair on the new arrivals either, he said.

Councillor O’Brien said some people were living in unsuitable conditions.

He described rooms being shared and 30 or 40 people in one building. This was neither healthy nor a proper environment, he said.

He said he had made representations on behalf of people waiting in homeless accommodation in Charlestown and noted that the monthly report showed two people presenting as homeless to Mayo County Council, "two is still too many," he added.

He said councillors were hearing from the public that new arrivals were “getting precedent over us”.

The faith in the system “isn’t there”, he said.

Councillor O’Brien said middle-income families were getting no support with housing.

He called for the Croí Cónaithe grant to be increased for people building smaller homes of 1,500 to 1,600 square feet.

Those families were not coming onto the housing list, he said.

He also criticised the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, over his remarks on people on long-term unemployment payments.

Mr Harris said at the weekend that the dole is not a way of life and pledged tougher penalties for people on unemployment payments.

"If you are not on the dole, you’ll get nothing,” Councillor O’Brien said.

“If he wants to do that, he should increase the income threshold, maybe that’s why people are encouraged to wait on the dole.”