Almost four out of every ten successful applicants for Council houses in the county reject the offer of a home – in some cases, walking away from a brand new property.

The startling figures were revealed by a senior Council official who said that many were holding out for better accommodation.

And that led to claims among Councillors that many of those on the waiting list just want to ‘pick and choose’ where they will be located by the local authority.

The Council revealed that, of the 300 tenancies created across the county last year, 118 were declined by those on the housing waiting list.

Forty of those were in the Tuam Municipal Area; 23 in Connemara; 17 in Ballinasloe; twelve in Gort, and eleven each in the Loughrea and Athenry/Oranmore Areas. The other four were in North East Galway.

The report also revealed that 49 of these successful applicants refused offer of accommodation which they deemed unsuitable to their needs; twenty of these were in Tuam alone.

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