City council refutes Cork TD’s criticism over ‘lengthy delays’ in social housing projects

A TD has queried “serious delays” in Cork City Council’s social housing pipeline as highlighted in a Government report, but the council has said the document does not relate to current data.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould criticised what he called “lengthy delays” in the construction of social housing, which are leaving potential homes unbuilt.

Mr Gould’s comments relate to analysis undertaken by his office of the Department of Housing’s construction status progress report for Q4 of 2022.

Mr Gould said there were currently 861 social homes at various stages of construction in Cork City, and over 40% had been delayed for at least a year, a statement the council has described as “inaccurate”. 

Working from the data contained in the report, Mr Gould said 364 of those homes in the pipeline had been held up since at least the first quarter of 2022.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said the report was “a high-level national report giving an overview of projects and their current status and needs to be read in the context of it being completed in Q4 of 2022”, and updates for the first quarter of 2023 would need to be taken into account.

However, Mr Gould has argued that the data shows a lack of progress on some projects.

“There are plans for 37 units on Boyce St,” he said.

“These have been flagged for decades. Despite the huge demand for these potential homes, there has been little progress on these plans since at least March 2018.

“These could be homes; people in Cork City are crying out for homes.

“Instead, these plans have been gathering dust for over five years now.”

The Sinn Féin TD said the department’s report showed 114 homes that could be built which had instead been sitting at various stages of construction for at least three years.

“It should not take three years to build 11 homes, but Cork City Council have been on site, on Redforge Rd, building 11 homes since the first quarter of 2020,” he said.

“I have written to the minister and Cork City Council to ask them to make clear where these delays are coming from and what is being done to resolve this.”

Mr Gould said the delays were unacceptable, and a direct consequence of the Government’s policies.

The council spokesperson said that it was important to highlight that some of the projects cited in The Echo’s query had “commenced before or during the pandemic, with the associated effects of construction shutdowns, and material and supply chain delays, which were further exacerbated by the impact of the Ukrainian war on supply chain”.

Rejecting the suggestion some of its social housing projects were “stalled”, the council said: “All projects listed are either completed, onsite, or are live within the four-stage process and progressing to site-start.

“It is therefore completely inaccurate to state that 40% of the programme is stalled.”

Referring to the 37 social housing units planned for Boyce’s St, the spokesperson said: “This is phase two of a two-phase development. Phase one is now completing, enabling works are complete on phase two, and the main housing contract will progress on this site on completion of phase one”.

On the claim, cited within the departmental report, that Cork City Council has been on site, on Redforge Rd, building 11 homes since the first quarter of 2020, the spokesperson said: “This project referred to is a Respond housing development, not a Cork City Council direct build project.

“This is the final phase of four phases totalling 80 homes — this final phase is currently completing”.

However, Mr Gould criticised what he described as a lack of urgency from the Government when it came to the completion of social housing projects.

“They are allowing these projects gather dust for years upon years,” said the Cork North Central TD.

“We have a minister announced, to much fanfare, that there are 19,000 homes in the pipeline. How many of these are facing similar delays?

“The number of people on the social housing list in Cork City rose by 380 last year to 7,190 people. People need housing — they are crying out for it.

“These delays are compounding the housing crisis in Cork City.”