Questions over why housing applicants at top of list denied new homes by Wexford council

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Having received unofficial confirmation that they were set to be given new homes in Carrig-on-Bannow, Co Wexford, three social housing applicants have discovered that the properties have gone elsewhere.

Despite being the top three applicants on Wexford County Council’s (WCC) housing list for the village, they must now wait in the hope that more homes become available in a district which has very few developments under construction.

Raising her concerns at the May meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD), Councillor Aoife Rose O’Brien asked just who the homes had been allocated to instead.

“It appears that someone has jumped the list,” she said. “I was representing three people who were numbers 1-3, and none of them were given the three houses that were allocated. Can someone explain what has happened?”

This immediately set alarm bells going for Cathaoirleach Ger Carthy who feared there was some “district hopping” going on with applicants changing their area of preference to match locations where houses were being built.

But according to housing officer Sharon Ryan there was a much more simple explanation.

“Anyone who is in a rental accommodation scheme (RAS) house that gets a notice to quit is automatically housed, that’s national policy,” she asked. “In this instance there were a couple of RAS tenants who had received a notice of termination and we hadn’t yet housed them.”

Still not convinced, Cllr Carthy asked whether those individuals had Carrig-on-Bannow listed as one of their three areas of preference.

“Yes, two of them definitely had. The third one I’ll have to check,” replied Ms Ryan.

“So the third person was hopping from another district?” asked Cllr Carthy.

“I’d imagine it was a disability applicant, so it’s not that someone skipped the list,” said Ms Ryan.

Continuing, Cllr Carthy asked whether a notice to quit could be “orchestrated” if someone knew there were houses becoming available elsewhere in the county.

“I don’t believe it can,” came the response.

With five additional houses due to come on stream in Carrig-on-Bannow in October, Cllr O’Brien was keen to ensure those at the top of the list weren’t overlooked for a second time.

“Is the same thing going to happen when the rest of the houses are complete?” she asked. “It’s been so long since we had any houses in Carrig and these are local people who have been the list for a very long time. “

“I can talk to the allocation team about it but things can change between now and October,” answered Ms Ryan.

This led to the cathaoirleach issuing a warning of sorts regarding the provision of houses in the RMD.

“This is very serious now,” he said. “We have very few houses being built in this district as it is.”