COUNCILLORS in the Adare-Rathkeale have called for an independent inquiry on approved social housing delivery in their area.
Speaking at November’s area meeting, Cathaoirleach Adam Teskey (FG) told the Council executive that he was sick of being “misled, misguided, and mistreated” on the issue of local authority housing.
Cllr Teskey also accused the Council of “incompetence at the highest level”.
“It’s a shambles what we are seeing from this local authority, to be honest with you,” Cllr Teskey hit out.
“It deserves an inquiry at this stage. I believe we could be legally scrutinised and if there was a legal challenge, we would find ourselves in a dangerous position.”
Cllr Teskey declared that the latest housing figures, which indicated 48 per cent of Adare-Rathkeale’s build programme approved up to 2026, was a “backwards” move – as it is down 10 per cent from figures shown to councillors in March.
“Back in March you told us that the construction in Deerpark in Adare was expected to be delivered in 2025, now it has been shot down until 2026,” Cllr Teskey said.
“I would take these figures as skewed and flawed. In March we would have anticipated that housing was going to be initiated and now you have shoved it out another year. We are moving figures around continuously.
“The circumstances were in our control at one stage and we’ve taken our eye off the ball, which brings us back 10 per cent in our overall target.”
The Fine Gael councillor rallied on, saying that “we’re in the middle of a housing crisis. The fact of the matter is, we’re 10 per cent behind target since March to October. This doesn’t make good reading.”
“I don’t know where we go from here or how we get out of trouble, but from a representational point of view, I have to say that I would be extremely disappointed,” he told the executive.
The Fine Gael man also wanted to know when Limerick City and County Council was going to get serious about tackling voids.
Party colleague Stephen Keary took the view that the Council should be “ashamed of themselves” for presenting a 10 per cent decrease in housing projection since March 2024.
He also suggested that the local authority give serious consideration to selling some of the voids waiting for repair if it is not prepared to do anything with these properties.
“You shouldn’t be building houses because you don’t know how to build them, you are only pulling and dragging,” Keary claimed.
A Council spokesperson said the local authority happy with the general trend in the housing programme for Adare-Rathkeale as they were near halfway.
“We are continuing our pace to reach the target,” the meeting was told.
