Council delivers four social houses
A SMALL step in the right direction for the county’s growing housing needs was taken on Monday as Kerry County Council signed a contract with local builders for four new homes in Lixnaw.
Tim Scanlan Construction Ltd is to build four two-storey, two-bedroom houses in the Baile an Gharraí estate in the North Kerry village by December next at a cost of little over €500,000. News of the contract was widely welcomed.
The contract was signed at County Buildings on Monday with Chairperson of the Council Michael O’Shea, Council Chief Executive Moira Murrell and Vice- Chair of the Listowel Municipal District in which the homes will be built, Cllr Mike Kennelly, present.
Cllr Kennelly welcomed the contract, made possible under the national Rebuilding Ireland Programme.
“Kerry County Council is working to identify all opportunities to assist those on the housing waiting list at present and in a number of parts of the county, construction of housing units is underway once again.
“I look forward to the delivery of these houses in Lixnaw by the end of this year which will go some way to addressing the housing needs of those in the north Kerry area,” said Cllr Kennelly.
There are currently just over 5,000 people on the waiting list across Kerry’s four municipal district areas. The county’s largest urban area of Tralee accounts for nearly half of all the applicants, with the Listowel municipal area accounting for just over ten per cent of the list.
Rebuilding Ireland is providing for the development of 8,430 units in the near term with the ambitious figure of 47,000 units to be completed by the target date of 2021, amid continuing grave concern over homelessness figures.