Fears that local authorities could lose their role in the delivery of social housing were voiced at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. The Monaghan elected members aligned themselves with the growing tide of opposition at local authority level throughout the country to the Government’s Land Development Agency Bill, passing a motion from Seamus Coyle (Fianna Fáil) which called on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien TD to remove some of the proposed legislation’s more contentious elements, in particular the plan to end a long-standing provision which gives elected councillors a say in how lands in the possession of a local authority are disposed of.
Sinn Féin councillor Brian McKenna said that the creation of the Land Development Agency and the functions and funding which the Government intended to bestow on it could see an end to the role of Co Councils in the supply of social housing. Discussion arose out of a resolution…
