COUNCILLORS SEEK REPORT ON HIGH RATE OF HOUSING REFUSALS

The members of Monaghan Co Council have requested that a report be prepared on the reasons for a significant rate of refusals of offers of local authority housing in the county. Statistics which came before Monday’s meeting of the local authority indicated that, of 151 offers of accommodation in local authority housing in the county so far this year, 36 or 24% had been refused. There was a 33% refusal rate when it came to accommodation provided by AHBs or Approval Housing Bodies, with 12 out of 36 nominations turned down. There are well over 1,000 people on the waiting lists for local authority housing in Co Monaghan.

Commenting at Monday’s meeting, Sinn Féin’s Pat Treanor voiced disappointment at the refusal rate, which he described as quite high. Aidan Campbell (Fine Gael) expressed similar sentiments, noting that most of the accommodation offered would have been in brand new houses. “We hear so much about the lack of housing but we have up to 30% of people being offered houses and refusing them,” he stated. “There is something wrong somewhere when this is happening.” Fine Gael’s Sean Gilliland also had concerns about allocations of new housing being turned down. “Sometimes there are genuine reasons, but when a new house is being offered in an area that is on…