Modular homes in Cork city for Ukrainian families ready in two weeks

SIXTY-FOUR modular homes will be handed over in Ballinure, Mahon on Thursday, May 18, with Ukrainian families expected to move in mid-June.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth are rolling out a national modular housing programme, which will house 2,000 Ukrainians in modular homes at a number of sites nationwide.

Ciarán O’Connor of the OPW told the Oireachtas housing committee on Tuesday that the units were delivered fully fitted out.

Mr O’Connor added that the first group of units will be handed over in a fortnight.

“The first group of units will be handed over in two weeks’ time and the units will continue to flow throughout the summer to the end of the year,” he said. “We have learned a lot in that whole process. We have brought an industry that we could say was at junior infants level to secondary school level.

“They are fully fitted out and they are delivered with all the stuff in them,” said the OPW official. “They are effectively what is called ‘plug and play’.

He said: “We developed a plan that would work. The plan is based on meeting the housing standard as well as the building regulations.

“To create a level playing field, we fixed a design to give certainty to manufacturers and to aid speed of delivery. The standards and quality were set up.

“We have a 60-year structural lifespan. We are in compliance with the building regulations, allowing for the future of renewables. We are insulated to A2 standards. We are fully wired, plumbed, and tested. All of that stuff is done, including the generation of heat from the extraction of air in the unit itself.

“It is fully finished, so when it is delivered to the site all that is to happen is for it to be physically connected to the system,” he added.

Mr O’Connor said: “We have a variety of different sites spread throughout the country. The first will be ready in Cork on May 18.

“None of the sites we had were Housing for All sites. They were all left over from other areas and were nearly all local authority sites. OPW supplied four key sites, which amounts to about 40% of the total.

“The Mahon site had been used for illegal purposes such as fly-tipping and all sorts of other things. All of that has been cleared up and 64 new units have gone in with roads and so forth all meeting modern standards.”