Council urged to ‘focus’ on derelict houses in Limerick

WORK is to commence shortly to upgrade four homes in West Limerick which were acquired by homelessness charity Focus Ireland last year.

Previously, Limerick City and County Council transferred the units - in Newcastle West, Dromcollogher, Abbeyfeale and Feenagh - to Focus.

At this month’s Newcastle West district area meeting, Independent councillor Jerome Scanlan complained about the pace of progress since the homes were sold last year.

“I have been to each of the houses and not a single thing has been done. If these places entered Tidy Towns, there will be black marks all around. The homes are boarded up - there's embarrassment and horror,” said the councillor.

He urged local authority housing staff to rescind the sale to Focus Ireland and instead sell the homes on the open market.

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But housing official Sarah Newell said the project was “extremely complex” and that lessons have been learnt.

“It's not the fault of Focus. They can get on site once papers are exchanged and signed - I’d expect this in the next fortnight,” she told the meeting.

Legal issues would also arise if these sales were cancelled, Ms Newell warned council members.

In a written answer, she said the estimated date for the completion of works for the units in Newcastle West is towards the end of this year.

Fine Gael councillor Liam Galvin said the local authority should accept that a mistake was made in assigning the homes to Focus Ireland.

“We gave these homes to Focus Ireland with the best intentions. Focus has let us down as a local authority, but they’ve let the people down who they are supposed to be giving houses to, and we cannot hide away from that. We did this and Focus Ireland has failed,” said Cllr Galvin.

The Limerick Leader has contacted Focus Ireland for comment, but had not received a response at the time of going to press.