Minister visits council for housing briefing 

MINISTER for State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Damien English, met with Fingal County Council officials last week to hear first-hand the work it is doing to alleviate the housing crisis.

Minister English met the council’s chief executive, Paul Reid, Director of Housing and Community Margaret Geraghty, Director of Planning and Strategic Infrastructure AnnMarie Farrelly and County Architect Fionnuala May at County Hall, Swords. There, he received a detailed presentation on all aspects of the council’s response to the Rebuilding Ireland programme.

The Minister heard the council has a detailed plan to provide housing in the county and will exceed its target of 1,376 units under the 2015-2017 Social Housing Delivery Programme with 1,215 units already delivered and a further 705 approved.  

He was told the council currently has a construction programme that will deliver 582 houses, some in collaboration
with Approved Housing Bodies, while there are 49 active private development sites of 10 or more units across the county.

The Minister was also briefed on how the council has reduced the number of vacant properties in the county to 760 and given details of the current campaign to persuade owners of vacant properties to lease or sell them to the council. 

He was told how Fingal has successfully reduced the number of voids within its housing stock to no more than one per cent of stock at any time.

The Minister’s visit also included a site visit to Racecourse Common, Lusk, where the council is currently constructing 74 houses and he was given a detailed run-down on what is planned by County Architect Fionnuala May.

Mr Reid said: “The Minister wanted to see at first-hand what we are doing in relation to housing and to speak directly to those members of staff who are dealing with the housing crisis on a day to day basis.” 

“It was a very productive meeting for both sides and he certainly found it very informative.”