Council spends €5m building 22 houses

MORE than €5 million of public money has been spent on a 22-house Clare County Council development in Shannon.

The development at Glaise na Rinne was bedevilled by controversy before work even began, with claims that the location was unsuitable. The project subsequently ran way behind schedule, after two contractors working on it went out of business.

It took over five years for the development to be completed and according to figures provided at this week’s Shannon Town Council meeting, an average of €230,000 has been spent per house.

Sixteen of the houses are for affordable housing and the other six are step-down units. The most expensive of the affordable units are priced at €102,000, meaning huge losses on the project.

At the town council meeting on Tuesday, Councillor Gerry Flynn asked how much the project had cost, how much money had been provided by the Government and what the situation is concerning the allocation of the step-down units and the sales of the affordable houses.

In a written reply, Bernadette Kinsella, Shannon town manager and director of services for housing, cultural and emergency services, stated expenditure to date is €5.061m.

Regarding the money received from Government, she stated that a department subsidy of €654,000 has been received in respect of the affordable units, while a claim has recently been submitted to the department in respect of the six social units.

“The balance of expenditure will be funded from the sale proceeds of the houses, bond income and part five funds. The estimated final debit balance on the scheme after the foregoing is applied is estimated to be €1m. The raising of a loan to fund this balance will be considered by the council at its November monthly meeting.”

She indicated there is some interest in the houses. “The disposal of four affordable units at the updated market value will be considered by the council at their November monthly meeting. Three applications on hand are at an advanced stage of being processed and a further three are pending.

“Of the six social units, four have been allocated (one step down and three social). It is expected that these will be occupied in the next two weeks. Applications for the two remaining step-down units are currently being processed. In the event that these applications do not progress, the remaining units will be allocated in early December,” Ms Kinsella concluded.