HOUSING REFUSALS A GRAVE ISSUE IN MONAGHAN

One of the reasons offered for the refusal of a local authority house in Monaghan was that the dwelling in question was opposite a graveyard and the person in question would feel depressed, a report before Tuesday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council indicated. The report – which had been requested by councillors following recent concern over the rate of housing refusals in the county at a time when there are over 1,000 people on the local authority accommodation waiting lists – found that approximately two-thirds of all refusals were deemed to be unreasonable.

Other recent reasons for not accepting a property given to the Co Council included not liking the location or no longer wanting to live in the area in question. One prospective tenant declared that a property was too small and compared it to “an old Dublin tenement”, while another said a property was too small for their furniture. People also refused houses because of the lack of transport, the location having “too much congestion” or not being in a rural area.

One person refused on the grounds that they did not have money to buy furniture, another because they were unable to get a Sunday bus link from the location…