Calls for crackdown on arrears before hiking council rents
If Galway County Council collected all of the rent owed, then they would not have to implement increases on local authority tenants.
That’s according to one local Councillor who said that outstanding monies should be collected – because the proposed increases only hurt the most vulnerable in society.
Cllr Timmy Broderick’s comments came at a meeting of Ballinasloe Municipal Council; the rent increases mainly affect local authority tenants in the Ballinasloe area who were paying considerably less than those in the rest of the county.
As Ballinasloe was part of a former Urban District Council, they set their own commercial rates and rents – invariably they were much less than those being charged across the rest of the county.
Galway County Council are endeavoring to being everything in line and it means that the maximum rent that applies in Ballinasloe, which is €85 per week, will now increase to €130 per week, based on nett income that comes into each household.
Cllr Broderick was supported by Sinn Fein’s Cllr Dermot Connolly who brought a deputation of local authority residents to meet with senior officials of Galway County Council to outline their concerns.
Cllr Connolly said that incomes for the vast majority of Council tenants had not increased and yet it was proposed to implement a hike in their rent.
Galway County Council carried out a rent review in recent years and it is very possible that others across the county will also have to pay more – based on the information that they have provided regarding their household income.
Director of Services for Housing Michael Owens informed councillors that in the Council’s budget, provision was made for additional income of €450,000 from the review of rents on their properties.
He said that this was based on the rent review that would be calculated on the basis of current and accurate income details of each Council household.
Fianna Fail’s Cllr Michael Connolly said that a Council decision had been made and agreed upon to set a new criteria for rents and that they couldn’t go back on this. He said that the process for the setting and collection of rents had to move forward.
But Cllr Broderick asked what was wrong about Galway County Council trying to get back some of the money it was owed. “I thought that councillors were supposed to be supportive of means to boost revenue – not work against it”, he said.
“I cannot see the logic of abandoning debts that we are owed and then piling on the pressure on those who cannot afford the increases. It seems ludicrous,” Cllr Broderick added.