Kerry councillor feels county is ‘overlooked’ as Cork’s affordable housing speeds ahead

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has said he feels the county is ‘overlooked’ for affordable housing schemes, as Cork ploughs ahead with major projects.

Councillor Brendan Cronin expressed his frustration with Killarney’s St Finan’s building “sitting there rotting”, while the county is enduring a housing crisis.

At a meeting last week, he highlighted the works being carried out by Cork City Council that will see 267 affordable homes built at the former St Kevin’s hospital site.

The affordable housing scheme allows local authorities to purchase new and offer them to residents at a cheaper price, but while other counties benefited from the government initiative, Kerry is still yet to see its first affordable home.

Cork City Council has been working with the Land Development Agency (LDA) to deliver housing at the St Kevin’s site, as well as being involved with the state agency in draft plans for another 348 homes in the city.

“What’s being done, it’s transformed the place,” said Cllr Cronin of the St Kevin’s project, “and it can be done and we’re seeing it done, yet we can’t make any headway.”

“It gets so frustrating when I see what’s being achieved and how we’re being overlooked, that’s what it feels like.”

Cllr Cronin said there was a “huge list” of people waiting for affordable housing in Kerry while the St Finan’s site on the north side of Killarney lies unused.

St Finan’s is currently being reviewed by the LDA to determine its suitability for development by the agency and potentially provide Kerry’s first affordable housing scheme.

Councillors worried that if the LDA were to turn the project down, the current owners of the land, Health Service Executive (HSE), might sell it to a private developer.

When councillor Niall Kelleher requested a meeting with the LDA, the council promptly shut it down, saying “with greatest of respect, there’d be no benefits of a political meeting”.

“That’s the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever heard,” replied Cllr Kelleher.

“When you’re dealing with people that have been on the housing list for 12 or 13 years, you realise dereliction is the biggest anti-social behaviour in the county.”

The council replied that the project was “extremely complex” and there was no comparable structure in the whole county.

“There’s no building of this scale, that’s in this state, in all the county’s estate awaiting such a retrofit” said the Municipal District (MD) manager.

There’s “miles of plumbing and electricals” as well as “layer upon layer of analysis” to be carried out, he said.

He assured councillors there was no risk of the HSE selling the land while the LDA’s survey was ongoing.

Councillor Naill O’Callaghan said he agreed “100 per cent” with the council that there was no need for a political consultation with the LDA.

However, he expressed concerns that neither the LDA or the HSE wanted the costly building and thus there was incentive to put it on the open market.

The MD manager replied that the LDA were “genuine and honourable” in their intentions with the site and asked the councillors to “trust me on this one”.

“Yes, its almighty animal, yes they’d rather it not on their books, but its part of their statutory remit…we have to work through the process.”