Claims Rosslare district isn’t receiving ‘fair share’ of new housing projects rejected by Wexford County Council
Wexford PeopleWexford County Council (WCC) has rejected claims that it is not building enough houses in the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD). As the only district in the county without an urban centre, those campaigning for more housing delivery in the RMD have frequently argued that it is being overlooked in favour of Wexford town and Gorey.
And at the July meeting of the council, RMD councillor Aoife Rose O’Brien submitted a motion calling for her constituents to receive their “fair share” of social housing opportunities. Noting the “shortfall” in the RMD “compared to other districts”, Cllr O’Brien asked for a commitment that WCC would increase supply for those on the housing list in Rosslare and its surrounds.
However, in its response, WCC noted that, under the Housing For All programme, it remained on course to not only meet its targets in the RMD, but to exceed them.
Following the publication of the Housing for All plan in 2021, WCC developed a Housing Delivery Action Plan (2022-2026) with a goal of delivering 1,150 social houses across the county by the end of next year.
“The housing department carried out considerable work to provide a fair and transparent method of distributing Wexford’s allocation of 1,150 units between the five municipal districts, taking into account the various funding streams available to the council,” said WCC in its response to Cllr O’Brien’s query.
“The housing department recommended that a calculation of the social housing applications (including transfers) per district as a percentage of the total number of applications for the county was the fairest and most transparent means of determining the allocation per district.”
Adopted by councillors in 2022, that allocation was based off the number of social housing applicants per district at the time. WCC noted that, in 2022, there were 3,187 applicants in the county, with 265 of those listing their first preference as the RMD.
“This equates to 8 per cent of the total number of applications or 96 individual homes,” said WCC.
To date, under Housing For All, WCC has delivered 75 new units in the RMD (35 in Rosslare Strand, 40 in Murrintown) and has plans to unveil a further 18 in Tagoat this year.
“Our pipeline to end 2026 should add at least another 34 units (in the RMD) based on current projections,” said the council. “This should give a total delivery under Housing For All of at least 127 units, which is 132 per cent of the Housing for All commitment to the RMD.”