“Use Sandy Road Public Land For 100% Universal Public Housing” - Ian Ó Dálaigh
Éirígí's Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, has called for public land controlled by the Land Development Agency (LDA) in the city to be used for 100% Universal Public Housing. No formal plan for the development has been announced, despite it being in the pipeline since 2020.
Speaking from Galway, Ó Dálaigh said, "In January 2020 the LDA announced plans to develop a new “sustainable neighbourhood” on a 20-acre plot of public land on the Sandy Road, which is set to include up to 1,000 new homes.
In September 2021, local media reported that governance documents in relation to the site were finalised between the LDA and Galway City Council, and that the project was expected to proceed to the planning stage in 2022.
Sandy Road site - currently being used by Galway Council, the ESB and other state agencies
One year later, this has still not happened. And worse still, the LDA intends for ‘a significant component’ of the housing to end up in private hands via the so-called ‘affordable housing’ scheme, with the remainder being segregated ‘social’ and ‘cost rental’ housing.
Using public land for private housing and segregated housing in this way will only deepen the housing crisis, because the main cause of that absence of universally-accessible public housing.
The housing crisis can only be ended by increasing both the overall housing stock AND the percentage of publicly-owned housing within the overall national housing stock to at least 30%.
I’m calling on the people of Galway to contact the LDA and the City Council and make it known that our public land must be used for 100% Universal Public Housing.
Éirígí Gaillimh housing protest at the vulture landlord-owed Augustine Hill site
UP Housing would provide for long-term security of tenure and genuinely affordable rent – linked to household income. And it would transform Irish society for the better by reducing income inequality and breaking down class barriers.
This is how we build sustainable communities, and not through repeating all of the housing mistakes of the past as the LDA is proposing. Building private housing on the Sandy Road site cannot be allowed to happen.
I’m asking people living in Galway to join the fight for housing justice. Only when the people affected by the housing crisis stand together and make their voice heard can we expect to push back against the greedy few who profit off our misery!".
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