Social housing boost for County Galway

Galway City and County Councils is to receive €58.4 million towards the construction of 1,126 new social houses in Galway.

The new houses are due to be built by 2017 and will take 21% and 29% of households off the city and council housing lists respectively.

“This is good news for the thousands of families on housing waiting lists across Galway. We will finally see local authorities building houses again – something that Fianna Fail stopped and Labour has been committed to starting again. This funding will provide homes for Galway families and is the first phase in a historic investment in social housing across the country,” noted Deputy Derek Nolan.

“Social housing is a social good. It provides quality homes for those who cannot afford their own, relieves pressure on the private rented market and is a control on private house prices. I want to see more social houses built so that those on waiting lists can settle, raise families and help create new communities across Galway,” he added.

Senator Lorrane Higgins focused on the fact that the housing list in County Galway is set to reduce by 29%.

“Overall, a total of €30,173,232 is to be invested in Galway County Council¨from now until 2017 to enable it to increase the numbers of social housing units that can be acquired or built in the county.

Details of the new Build, Buying & Leasing Programme were confirmed by Environment Minister Alan Kelly today and outline the plan to significantly reduce the numbers of people on housing lists locally. This announcement has been made possible by the €3.8bn social housing strategy secured by Minister Kelly at Budget time.