‘Tralee’s a model for Irish housing’

HOUSING Minister Simon Coveney has described the multi million Euro Mitchel’s Regeneration Project in Tralee as a model for community regeneration and housing policy in Ireland.

The Minister was speaking at Áras an Phobail in Tralee’s Mitchels area as he launched the next phase of the ongoing €47 million Euro Mitchel’s Regeneration Project.

This next phase will involve the construction of 15 new social housing units in the area.

“The Mitchel’s Regeneration Project is a really good template for what we want to achieve across Ireland,” Minister Coveney said.

He said that Tralee – which he described as a town that has “faced many challenges in the past” – has much to teach the country when it comes to developing communities and providing housing that meets the needs of modern Irish society.

The Tralee Community Horse project was also cited as a success story that other towns could follow.

The Minister also praised the Mitchel’s Project for the successful manner in which communities have been brought together through the scheme.

This – he said – was a model for future Irish housing policy in which private and social housing will exist side by side.

“The days of having social houses on one side of a town and private houses on the other are over,” he claimed.

Kerry has much to teach Ireland when it comes to housing, he said, adding that he was in Tralee to listen and to learn.

Following the event at Áras an Phobail attended a ‘stakeholder event’ at Manor West Hotel for all public bodies and groups in Kerry involved in the Rebuilding Ireland initiative.