Construction of four different social housing development schemes comprising of a total 30 houses has concluded.
Of the four, the biggest scheme was located at An Cladach in Quilty which is made up of 18 units. The development was completed by Martins Construction Ltd and is a mix of two, three and four-bedroom single and two-storey semi-detached houses. Eight units had previously been completed at Roslevan in Ennis adding to the social housing stock.
A new development at St Michael’s Place in Kilmihil saw the completion of two three-bedroom two-storey semi-detached residential units by Custy Construction Ltd. Similarly, two units were also finished at Cappa Lodge in Sixmilebridge. This once again was two three-bedroom two-storey semi-detached units by Custy Construction Ltd. The four completed schemes were funded under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness.
There are 163 units currently under construction by Clare County Council in the county. Fifty-one of these units are under construction in Shannon, under the Shannon Public Private Partnership Scheme. A further 40 units are under construction in Ashline, Ennis. Elsewhere construction continues in Miltown Malbay (27 units), Tulla (25 units), Newmarket-on-Fergus (18 units) and Doonbeg (2 units).
Clare County Council have confirmed that “a strong pipeline of new build social homes” are currently at various stages of design and require approval from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. A further 78 units are included in these plans.
Mayor of Clare, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) outlined that the development of the houses “will provide badly needed homes for people in Clare. It is essential that Clare County Council continues to build homes as part of our plans to address our social housing requirements, and to continue to do this in a planned and strategic way”.
Provision of appropriate housing supports to those in need remains an objective of the local authority, Director of Service Anne Haugh stated. “We are focused on developing accommodation projects appropriate to identified need across the range of delivery streams, working with approved housing bodies and agencies to maximise use of available accommodation options and associated funding, and implementing an appropriate land acquisition strategy to facilitate existing and future construction programme needs”.
