Council denies claims of favouritism in Westmeath housing allocations

Getting a council house in Westmeath can be "like winning the lotto," with housing allocations sometimes influenced by "who you know" in the local authority, a county councillor has claimed.

The comments were made yesterday (Monday) by Cllr Mick Dollard, who said he was aware of cases involving a 73-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man who were both yet to be offered a council house in Westmeath, despite being on the waiting list for 17 and 12 years, respectively.

In response to his remarks, Mark Keaveney, the council's director of services for housing, firmly rejected the claim that favouritism was a factor in the allocation of homes.

Cllr Dollard, a Mullingar-based Independent representative, spoke after a presentation on social housing allocations at Monday's meeting of Westmeath County Council's Housing, Community, Corporate and Culture committee.

"In Westmeath County Council, sometimes it's like winning the lotto to be approved for a council house. I honestly believe that," said the councillor.

"I see people going into local authority houses, and they're certainly not as deserving as some of the other people (on the list).

"I think we need to have more transparency. Sometimes, I believe, it's who they actually know inside of the council. The officials mightn't like me saying that, but it's a fact of life.

"It's who you actually know inside in the housing section that will help you get approved for a council house."

Cllr Dollard added that the issue of housing transfers for local authority tenants was another area in need of "urgent review," as he was aware of cases of people who had been waiting to downsize from homes that were too big for their needs.

Responding, Mr Keaveney said the housing allocations in Westmeath were made fairly.

"The housing allocations policy is implemented in a fair manner in Westmeath County Council, by the housing staff. There's no favouritism or anything like that. It's not who you know in housing, by any stretch of the imagination," he stated.

"I don't know about the particular cases, of someone who's 73, and 17 years on the housing list, or 58, and 12 years on it. Maybe we can look at that afterwards, to see what the particular circumstances are.

"We have 1,000 people on the housing list who don't have any suitable accommodation at the moment. We have another 1,000 people, or maybe more, that are on the transfer list.

"I accept that what Cllr Dollard is saying, that there are people in three-bed houses that are looking to downsize to one or two beds, but our housing list is something like 30% one-beds and 40 or 50% two-beds.

"So that's our housing need, as well, and it's very difficult to accommodate somebody who's in a three-bed, down to a one-bed or two-bed, when people who are in need of housing are in need of one-beds and two-beds."

Fianna Fáil councillor Ken Glynn also defended the work of the housing staff in the council.

"There will always be frustrations when housing allocations come up, because obviously we all want to see the people that we're trying to make representations for get (a home), but people need to understand that there's quite a large number of people out there who are in a similar situation.

"I wouldn't be critical of our staff. They do their best," he said.

During the meeting details were given of how Westmeath compares to other counties in terms of the length of time people typically spend on a waiting list for a council house.

The meeting was told that Westmeath County Council had "a significantly higher percentage of people on the waiting list for up to two years" when compared with other local authorities.

However, the number of people on the long-term waiting list, for more than five years, was lower in Westmeath than in most other counties.