Cllr Gibbons receives tonguein-cheek praise for confidence for timeframe of recent motion
IN a lighter moment at the recent Sligo County Council meeting, a councillor who said he would be checking back in six months’ time to see how many houses were off the derelict list in Sligo got a gentle ribbing from a fellow councillor who said they admired his confidence that he would be a councillor in six months’ time a reference to the approaching local elections in June 2024. Cllr Gibbons enjoyed the ribbing and the Council chamber erupted in laughter at his sadly inaudible but clearly equally witty riposte.
It was a light-hearted close to a debate on a serious subject at the recent Council meeting where Cllr Gibbons sought support for his motion calling on the government to take seriously the issue of housing vacancy and dereliction at the time of a housing crisis.
Cllr Gibbons argues that in recent weeks, we saw that just 21 vacant home refurbishment grants had been drawn down despite the scheme being open for 18 months. Previous Government schemes for tackling vacancy such as Repair and Leave and Buy and Renew have all chronically underperformed, he said.
“The vacant home tax was designed to fail. It doesn’t apply to derelict properties. It is too low. And now we learn it will only apply to a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of vacant homes across the state.
“This latest revelation confirms that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are not serious about tackling the housing crisis. If they were, they would be moving heaven and earth to bring thousands of vacant and derelict homes back into use, particularly for affordable and social housing.”
Cllr Thomas Walsh, Fine Gael, largely in agreement with Cllr Gibbons, took issue with claims by Cllr Gibbons that the Government had done nothing to tackle dereliction.
Cllr Walsh reminded Cllr Gibbons that sums of €50,000 and €70,000 were on offer to do up derelict properties, adding: “So there is no excuse for derelict properties now not to be done up. The Department has required all local authorities to complete an audit of all derelict properties in their counties and that has been submitted by Sligo County Council. I don’t take his point that there has been inaction on dereliction. “Money is on offer now that was never on offer before and we have seen that in every part of Sligo,” he said.
Cllr Gibbons responded that he would be submitting the motion in six months’ time adding: “We’ll see how many are done by then.”
Off microphone for online listeners to the meeting a comment was made by an unknown councillor who suggested to Cllr Gibbons that they admired his confidence with his reference to six months’ time - as an election will have been held. Cllr Gibbons responded as the Chamber erupted into laughter.