by Alan Jacques
ALMOST €600,000 in funding, earmarked by Limerick City and County Council to help deal with the escalating housing emergency, has not been spent by the local authority.
Limerick TD Willie O’Dea has strongly criticised Environment Minister Alan Kelly for failing to issue policy direction to the council regarding the use of housing funds collected through development levies.
Fianna Fáil made a Freedom of Information request to local authorities querying the details of the development levy funds.
The information received shows that councils have been retaining significant housing funds from the Part V development levy in holding accounts for the last number of years and in the case of Limerick City and County Council, it amounts to €597,894.
“These funds should be used to help deal with the growing housing emergency that is gripping Limerick city and county. However as a consequence of Minister Kelly’s complete failure of leadership, local authorities have been unable to utilise this money to deal with the escalating housing and homeless crisis spreading across the country,” Deputy O’Dea told the Limerick Post.
“Despite being a valuable source of funding for social housing, local authorities have been holding back spending this finance because of a lack of guidance from the Department of Environment.”
Deputy O’Dea, who is Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Social Protection and Equality, says it is “truly shocking” that local authorities have been unable to spend these funds on the unfolding housing crisis simply because no policy directives have been issued.
“The latest homeless figures released for August show just how drastic the situation has become, with 707 families, including 1,496 children living in emergency homeless accommodation. That represents a shocking 40 per cent increase since the beginning of the summer. There are thousands of households on the social housing waiting lists in Limerick City and County Council alone,” he said.
“Minister Kelly’s failure to act shows how “utterly out of touch” he is. He has just passed legislation to halve the Part V obligation on developers from 20 to 10 per cent. This is the same Minister who made the disastrous decision to cut refurbishment funding to local authorities even though there are 141 housing units lying vacant. The cut to Limerick City and County Council amounted to €530,469 this year alone.”
