*Photograph: Martin Connolly
DELIVERY of 30 social houses in Ennistymon has been put on hold.
Official confirmation was given for the first time this week that the €7.7m housing development had been paused.
In October 2022, the Department of Housing approved the thirty house development which was to be situated at Glen North in Ennistymon. It was to include one five-bedroom house, one four-bedroom house, eight three-bedroom houses and twenty two-bedroom houses, two of which were specially adapted units.
There are four stages involved in the social housing approval process. The Ennistymon project had passed the first two – approval of the design expenditure and assessment prior to a statutory approval submission. The stumbling block emerged on wastewater infrastructure and this hurdle has not been scaled successfully.
Speaking at a meeting of Clare County Council this week, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) expressed disappointed, “the management report confirms what we suspected”. He stated, “the update says the project is on hold which doesn’t come as any great surprise”. The consequence is big for North-West Clare, he flagged, “in that locality now Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay are all capped with no development for the next five to ten years”.
Acting senior engineer in the housing and integration section of Clare County Council, Adrian Headd confirmed that the Ennistymon project “is on hold owing to environmental constraints”. He offered some hope that it could “be brought back to life” in the future.
Cllr Talty told The Clare Echo “it is hugely disappointing and frustrating that the one Government department which is responsible for housing is also responsible for wastewater so the department which sanctioned the project is also the one responsible for it not proceeding because of inadequate wastewater treatment”.
