No more council houses for Kilkee

Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council heard that there will be no local authority houses built in Kilkee in the foreseeable future. Instead, the town council will be relying upon renting private housing to meet the need of social housing in the town.
Currently, there are 146 applicants on the council’s housing list in Kilkee but there isn’t a single county council-owned house available to rent.
The meeting was addressed by Fiona Mooney, Clare County Council, who gave a presentation on social housing options.
Ms Mooney said that although there was officially 146 people on the Kilkee housing list, that figure may not be quite as high as that. She revealed that all 146 people had been written to recently to ascertain if they were still living in the area and in need of council housing.
So far, 84 people have replied and have confirmed that they are in need of housing. A second letter is to be sent to those on the list and “local enquiries” will also be carried out by Clare County Council.
Fiona Mooney told the meeting that the only options available to the council was to either rent houses from private property owners or to rely on voluntary housing groups to meet housing needs in Kilkee.
“If we had contact from a property developer, everything would be on the table,” Ms Mooney confirmed.
She added that the council had invited expressions of interest from people regarding the leasing of private houses to the local authority but that the response from private house owners had been poor.
“We haven’t had any expressions of interest from property owners in Kilkee,” Fiona Mooney stated, adding that the council would consider renting private houses to meet their housing list requirements for a period ranging from four to 20 years.
“If you are aware of people (private house owners) who might be interested, then can contact us,” she told the meeting.
“Based on what you’ve told us, we have a difficulty in Kilkee. I think we’re in a very serious situation at the minute,” Councillor Claire Haugh said.
Councillor Lily Marrinan Sullivan asked if council owned land on the Miltown Malbay road, which was bought to build council houses on, could be handed over to a voluntary housing group.
“It should be available within reason,” Councillor Marrinan Sullivan suggested.
Dún an Óir is a voluntary housing scheme currently up and running in Kilkee.
Kilkee Mayor, Elaine Haugh Hayes, noted that “there are no families living on any streets up town.
There is not one family on O’Curry Street,” she said. Councillor Paddy Collins noted that the draft census figures suggested that the town’s population has dropped by 250 within the last five years.
“That’s what’s killing the town,” he maintained.