Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has warned that the government and city managers are intent on shutting down social housing and handing it over to private or voluntary groups.
The Mayfield based councillor said that while there have been long-term problems without housing waiting lists, over the past few months the allocation of social housing units had come to a virtual standstill while the building of new housing units directly under local authority control was practically non existent.
Cllr. Tynan said: “I am deeply concerned that Cork City Council and other local authorities are going to offload social housing in the same way as they privatised the refuse service and now the water service. Social housing provision is more likely to be handed over to housing charities or indeed to private landlords. I believe this would be a very bad outcome for local authority tenants and those on the waiting lists”.
He continued, “This government, in league with the European Union bureaucracy which brought us the Troika, is determined to turn a whole raft of state agencies, including local authorities, into purely regulatory bodies. In effect the state is divesting itself of social responsibility. The rights of citizens to jobs, roofs over their heads and a social welfare safety net is being eroded day by day.
Cllr. Tynan, who is standing for re-election in the Cork City North East ward, said that local government would cease to be relevant to citizens if its role as a service provider is abolished. “There will be a major battle on the new councils to preserve key services such as social housing. If re-elected I intend to fight to keep these services under public control through the local authorities.”, he said.