Councils "can't cope with level of homelessness queries" says Westmeath TD

Three weeks after the no-fault evictions ban was lifted by the Government, a Sinn Féin TD in Longford Westmeath has told the Dáil that county councils in the Midlands are struggling to cope with the volume of requests they're receiving for housing support.

The comments were made by Sorca Clarke yesterday. A search of Daft.ie this afternoon (Thursday) showed that there were currently just 14 properties being advertised for rental in all of county Westmeath.

In county Roscommon, 14 properties were also being advertised, one of which was Castlecoote House which carries a pricetag of €4,950 per month.

In the Athlone area, across both counties, there were 10 properties offered for rent, including two-bedroom apartments in the Bastion Quay and Jolly Mariner developments which were listed for €2,250 and €1,800 per month respectively.

There was also one property advertised in Glasson village and one in Moate, at the time of writing.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Deputy Clarke said the housing crisis was as bad in the Midlands as it was in Ireland's cities.

"Local authorities are simply unable to cope with the level of demand coming into them," she stated.

"One of my local authorities has stated that, along with many other local authorities, it does not have the capacity to meet the current demand with regard to clients presenting as homeless."

Deputy Clarke said the crisis resulted in a situation where "in my town today there is a five-week-old baby who was born into homelessness by caesarean section.

"The baby and her parents were sleeping in a car up until a few evenings ago when a charity unrelated to housing started paying for a couple of nights in bed and breakfast accommodation."

Responding to the local TD, Minister of State Malcolm Noonan said the Government was "cognisant and mindful of the challenges facing local authorities and people and families across the country, not just in the greater Dublin area and larger urban centres."

He said the Government had "also recently agreed a number of new measures to give tenants the opportunity to buy or remain in their home, including the development of a legislative provision, which may require that a landlord selling a property offers first right of refusal to a tenant or another designated body.

"Further details of this will be available in due course," he added.

Deputy Clarke accused the Minister and the Government of not accepting responsibility for the current crisis.

"What I have heard in the Minister of State's speech is essentially what the local authorities are saying on the ground. It is not his responsibility; it is the local authority's responsibility," she said.

"In the case of the local authorities they tell people they are not refusing homeless support because they have told them to go to Midlands Simon Community. That is not tangible support.

"It does not take a mathematician to work out the number of notices to quit across counties Longford and Westmeath versus the 20 properties available to rent today," she said on Wednesday.

"I will put another issue to the Minister of State. We have all of this talk about the right of first refusal, but if a young couple in my constituency are paying between €1,200 and €1,500 per month in rent, where are they to get a deposit to buy the property?" she concluded.