Councillor slams home rejections

INDEPENDENT Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae has slammed those who turn down housing offers from the council without giving good reason for their refusal.

He was speaking at a recent Castleisland-Corca Dhuibhne Municipal District Meeting in Castleisland.

“Do we have any idea of the amount of people that are refusing housing being offered?” he asked at the meeting.

“Our refusal rate last year was around 17.5 per cent,” Kerry County Council’s Tim Brosnan said. “We would class some of those as reasonable and some as unreasonable.”

Mr Brosnan said, however, that housing investigation officers work closely with applicants and would be well aware of applicants’ needs. He said, therefore, that most rejections tend to be unreasonable.

“They get their letter of offer, and then all of a sudden they’re on the phone to say ‘I won’t go there. I don’t like that place.

That place doesn’t suit me,’” Cllr Healy-Rae said. “I think it’s nothing short of a disgrace.

“There are times that it’s the council’s fault. They might be offering somebody, who might have a child with a disability, some place that mightn’t be adapted or adequate.

“But these cases of, ‘I don’t like that area’? That’s no good. It’s a load of rubbish.”

Mr Brosnan said he agreed with much of Cllr Healy-Rae’s sentiments, and he reiterated that instances when applicants have a good reason to reject housing are “the exception rather than the norm”.

Cllr Jackie Healy-Rae