City housing allocation falls by 25% since 2009

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Galway City Council is to receive just over €18.2 million in Housing Funding Allocations for 2010, a drop of around 25% on last year, the Government has announced.

And with an expected shortfall in funding for social housing this year, the Galway City Council Fianna Fáil party whip is to urge the Government to increase the allocation.

The Minister for Housing and Local Services, Michael Finneran has allocated a total of €18,215,000, down from €24,150,000 allocated last year.

Cllr Mike Crowe explained that of this, just under €7m has been allocated for social housing, down from around €15m last year.“I’m disappointed with regard to the social housing allocation. There are projects that we already have commitments for, and it will be a challenge now to honour all of them. There will be a shortfall of around €500,000 on the social aspect of the allocations.

“I will be writing to Michael Finneran and Éamon Ó Cuív outlining the difficulties and the challenges that we face and see if we can get another €500,000,” said Cllr Crowe.

He said that the overall allocation for the city was to be welcomed.“We did very well, and I’m relatively happy overall,” he said.In the city, €16.3m has been allocated for housing supply and €1.9m for improvement works. In the county, a total of €15.165m has been allocated – €12m for housing supply and just over €3m for improvement works.

The most recent figures available from the City Council show there are more than 2,600 families and individuals on the housing waiting list, with more than 500 more applicants waiting to be assessed.

And the cuts in Government spending led to work on more than 140 housing units on the east and west of the city being suspended.