By Kate Heaney
DONEGAL County Council was this week awarded €1.4 million to develop six council houses in Letterkenny and four rural single rural dwellings in the county as part of a €68 million housing spend nation-wide.
Minister for Housing Jan O’Sullivan made the announcement this week saying that 449 new local authority houses will be built nation-wide it he next two years.
While the €1.4 million has been welcomed locally, the ten new social houses to be built, at an average cost of €140,000 each will hardly dent the 4,000 plus people waiting on council houses in Donegal.
More than 2,500 of these are on the council’s housing list for more than 18 months.
There are also a significant number of people in private rented accommodation and in receipt of rent supplement, so the total need is estimated to be in the order of 4,300.
Local Labour Party election candidate, Christy Galligan welcomed the €850,823 to be provided to construct six new local authority housing units at Glendale Drive in Letterkenny.
“I strongly welcome the funding for the development of this site. There is a strong social housing need in Letterkenny, and while this announcement is relatively modest, it sends a strong signal that Labour in government is pressing ahead with local .
“Whereas previous housing announcements in the past few years have been targeted at special housing needs, such the elderly or people with a disability, this funding is the first new programme of mainstream local authority construction since the recession struck and I hope it goes some way towards addressing the social housing need in Letterkenny,” Mr Galligan added.
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