Galway County Council has asked the owners of two derelict housing schemes in Conamara – with a combined total of 22 homes – to stall on sale plans until it can fully examine their potential purchase to ease the local accommodation crisis.

That’s what Conamara Cllr Máirtín Lee told a public meeting in Leitir Móir at the weekend; the meeting was organised by the Gaeltacht group BÁNÚ in conjunction with Coiste Halla Pobail Leitir Móir and was attended by over 50 people.

They want the local authority to acquire and renovate both of these derelict housing developments in the Conamara Gaeltacht, which were recently put on the market.

The eight homes at Ros a’ Mhíl and 14 at Anach Mheáin – originally built as holiday cottages – have been put up for sale by Tearmann Éanna Teo, an Approved Housing Body, which provides sheltered accommodation for older people with housing needs in the South Conamara Gaeltacht.

Cllr Lee, who was also recently appointed as chairperson of Tearmann Éanna Teo., explained that the houses were originally purchased for use by older people but were found to be unsuitable.

He said that they were now vacant for too long and it was decided by Tearmann Éanna to sell them.

But that sale was now stalled, he said, at the request of Galway County Council, to allow the local authority to examine the feasibility of purchasing the houses for local use.

Friday night’s meeting was addressed by Adhna Ní Bhraonáin, the founder of BÁNÚ, the pressure group calling for increased provision of houses for Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas.

She said that the difficulties encountered by her generation of Irish speakers in finding a suitable place to live was forcing Irish speakers to leave the Gaeltacht areas and thus endangering the language and culture of the Gaeltacht in the longer term.

She told attendees that acquiring the two schemes presented Galway County Council with a golden opportunity to help provide a solution to the problem of the housing needs of the Gaeltacht communities in which they are located.

“D’fhéadfaí na tithe a athchóiriú agus iad a chur ar fáil mar thithe sóisialta, tithe inacmhainne nó tithe ar chíos réasúnta, faoi na scéimeanna tithíochta éagsúla atá ag an Roinn Tithíochta” a dúirt sí.

The meeting, chaired by Norita Ní Chartúr and attended by three County Councillors for the South Conamara Area – Máirtín Lee (FF), Pádraig Joe Joe Mac an Iomaire (FG) and Michael Leainde (Ind Ire) – voted overwhelmingly to ask the County Council to acquire the houses to meet the needs of the local Gaeltacht communities.

All three councillors backed the proposal that Galway County Council should acquire the houses and renovate them for use to help alleviate the chronic affordable housing shortage in the South Conamara Gaeltacht.

Councillor Pádraig Joe Joe Mac an Iomaire said he intended to put a motion to that effect before the next meeting of Galway County Council and would seek the support of other councillors.

Pictured: Cllr Máirtín Lee