“LDA Must Deliver Universal Public Housing At Galway Harbour Site!” - Ian Ó Dálaigh

“LDA Must Deliver Universal Public Housing At Galway Harbour Site!” - Ian Ó Dálaigh

Earlier this week, it was announced that the Land Development Agency (LDA) is set to take over a three-acre site at Galway Harbour, potentially delivering over 250 new homes in the city.

The announcement came after Galway Harbour Company agreed to transfer the land to the LDA, after a lengthy consultation period between the two bodies and with Galway City Council.

Éirígí’s Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, has urged the LDA to take this opportunity to deliver permanently affordable housing to the people of Galway, by ensuring it is used for 100% Universal Public Housing.

Speaking from the City of the Tribes, Ó Dálaigh said,

“In a welcome move, the LDA have managed to secure the transfer of land at Galway Harbour and intend to use it to deliver hundreds of new homes here in Galway City.

It is of course positive to see this cooperation between state bodies in an attempt to deliver much-needed housing. However, there is a crucial component that must be addressed, and that is the long-term ownership of these homes.

In their announcement, the LDA stated the site would be used to develop “mainly affordable” apartments. This is incredibly vague to begin with, and more to the point “affordable” housing is defined as such by the ebb and flow of the private market, meaning it is only ever affordable for the lucky few.”

Ian Ó Dálaigh, Éirígí’s Galway representative.

Ó Dálaigh continued,

“Housing is not a commodity that can be made affordable through the simplistic supply/demand equation of the private market. What the people of Galway, and indeed all of Ireland, desperately need are permanently affordable homes in the form of Universal Public Housing.

UP Housing would guarantee affordability, as rent would be linked to household income. It would also provide for long-term, intergenerational security of tenure, which would help to develop sustainable communities.

The land at Galway Harbour joins the already-announced Sandy Road and Dock Road projects that the LDA has earmarked for Galway City. There is potential for over 1,200 homes on these three sites alone, as per the LDA’s own estimates.”

Ó Dálaigh concluded,

“Building 1,200 new homes - ensuring they are permanently publicly-owned - would radically transform the city’s housing landscape for the better.

We need to ensure that any housing development built on public land is used for 100% universal public housing – housing that will remain in permanent public ownership to provide affordable, secure homes to this and future generations of local people.

I would strongly encourage the people of Galway to support this call and to join the fight for housing justice.”

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