Arklow again ignored in house repair funds

June 1989

ARKLOW Urban Council were raging this week at being passed over once again for Departmental funding under the local authority housing refurbishment programme.

The Arklow council could have been out in the cold since the scheme was first launched in 1985, and despite making the necessary applications have not even secured a preliminary pilot scheme under th eprogramme to upgrade and improve low cost and pre-1940s housing.

And this week there was further cause for gnashing of teeth, as the Minister for Environment announced a multi-million pound nationwide package which included £600,000 for Bray UDC, £320,000 for Wicklow County Council to be spent on renovations to Kindlestown Park, Greystones, and Rockfield Park, Kilmacanogue and an alocation of £120,000 to Wicklow Urban Council.

Within 24 hours of the annoucement the Arklow council was making representations to the Minister on the matter and were declaring angrily this week that ‘we’re not going to sit idly by’.

Arklow Town Clerk Tom Byrne said thtat he could not understand why the town remained the only authority in the county not to receive fundings for these works.

‘While we mightn’t have any of the cheap 1960s flates and housing complexes which qualify for funding, there are quite a number of the pre-1940s houses around the town in need of repair,’ he said.

Urban Council chairman Tom Clandillon said that he would not stand idly by as Arklow was slammed yet again by the Department and that ‘we will make one hell of a fuss if we find that out case for funding was as strong as any other local authority which benefitted.

Amongst the areas which could benefit under the scheme are local authority properties at Mellows Avenue, Rory O’Connor Placem St Bridget’s Terrace, St Patrick’s Terrace and Abbey Terrace. West Belfast Sin Fein MP Gerry Adams spelt out his party’s strategy for the local elections on June 20 at a meeting in Bray last week organised by the local cumann.

During the course of a ‘question and answer’ session he said tha party would be aiming to win as many seats on local authorities around the country as possible.

He said that in the past members of Sinn Fein in the south had only been involved in ‘spectator’ politics, but these days were now long gone.

He said there was now a growing consciousness of the need to wage a political struggle on a 32-county basis.

Mr Adams said that he had no trouble defending the IRA whom he said were completing the unfinished business of the ‘Black & Tan war’ in the six counties.

HE said, however, that the IRA alone could not win the war in the north in the face of superior weaponry and he said that the republicans had to develop the passive support which existed for their struggle in the 26 counties.

Sinn Fein, he said, had to involve as many people in the struggle as possible, even if this meant widening the struggle to take in political issues in the south.

In another comment, Mr Adams said that ‘we should not be unmindful of the human tragedy’ which occurred during the IRA campaign even when a British soldier was killed. But it was up to Sinn Fein to explain that there was a war on and what it was about.

Mr Nicky Kelly urged support for Sinn Fein at the meeting and said that the party would be involved with local politics without using it as a launching pad for the Dail. Mr Adams said that during the course of canvassing he had not met any resistance to the Sinn Fein ideal although neither was there full scale enthusiasm for it.

He said that the Dublin government had done such a good job that people thought Sinn Fein had two heads, but from the campaign people could see that they did not.