Workers’
Party Councillor Ted Tynan has warned that the government and city managers are
intent on shutting down social housing and handing it over to private or
voluntary groups.
The
Mayfield based councillor said that while there have been long-term problems
without housing waiting lists, over the past few months the allocation of social
housing units had come to a virtual standstill while the building of new housing
units directly under local authority control was practically non existent.
Cllr.
Tynan said: “I am deeply concerned that Cork City Council and other local
authorities are going to offload social housing in the same way as they
privatised the refuse service and now the water service. Social housing provision is more likely to be
handed over to housing charities or indeed to private landlords. I believe this would be a very bad outcome
for local authority tenants and those on the waiting lists”.
He
continued, “This government, in league with the European Union bureaucracy
which brought us the Troika, is determined to turn a whole raft of state
agencies, including local authorities, into purely regulatory bodies. In effect the state is divesting itself of
social responsibility. The rights of
citizens to jobs, roofs over their heads and a social welfare safety net is
being eroded day by day.
Cllr.
Tynan, who is standing for re-election in the Cork City North East ward, said
that local government would cease to be relevant to citizens if its role as a
service provider is abolished. “There will be a major battle on the new
councils to preserve key services such as social housing. If re-elected I intend to fight to keep these
services under public control through the local authorities.”, he said.
