The Gaeltacht Housing Action Group BÁNÚ has accused Galway County Council of failing to properly maintain its stock of social housing in Conamara, of neglecting its tenants over the years and of effectively enticing families with children at local schools to move out of Irish speaking communities.

In a statement, BÁNÚ says that the County Council is neglecting its obligations as a landlord to properly maintain its houses in Leitir Mealláin and An Cheathrú Rua – and it has accused the local authority of doing ‘irreparable damage’ to the Gaeltacht, and the prospects for Irish as the community language.

The Chairperson of BÁNÚ, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe said he visited the houses in Garraí na Coirce, Leitir Mealláin with Councillor Michael Leainde.

And he told Raidio na Gaeltachta he was astounded to find that tenants – some of them old and not in great health – living for years with draughty windows and doors; with inaccessible Velux windows that cannot be opened or closed; with leaking radiators in some houses.

And he claimed that Galway County Council was refusing to sort the problems out.

“Dá mbeadh Comhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe ina thiarna talún príobháideach bheadh sé os comhair na cúirte mar gheall ar an droch bhail ina bhfuil na tithe, 16 acu, fágtha gan chothabháil ná deisiúchán i Leitir Mealláin” a dúirt sé.

He also claimed that Galway County Council is at bottom of the table, when it comes to the provision of Local Authority houses.

He cited the 2024 Report of the Housing Commission, which showed that in 2021 Galway County Council had only 14 Local Authority dwellings per 1000 people, half the national average.

It has no provision under its existing Housing Plan for the county to provide any social housing in the large Gaeltacht area, stretching from Na Forbacha along the Coast Road to Carna, a Gaeltacht area with a population of 12,000 people.

Instead of providing adequate social housing and properly maintaining the few houses it has in the Gaeltacht, BÁNÚ said that the County Council is moving people from their Irish speaking communities to Bearna, Moycullen, Oughterard and Clifden – thereby damaging the prospects of Irish as the everyday language in the Conamara Gaeltacht.

In its statement, BÁNÚ says that the housing crisis in the Gaeltacht was exacerbated by the failure of Galway County Council to supply any new houses in the Conamara Gaeltacht over the last 15 years, despite having a considerable landbank in the Gaeltacht.

BÁNÚ representatives have now sent a letter to the new Director of Housing in Galway County Council, Damien Mitchell, seeking an urgent meeting to propose possible solutions to the housing crisis in the Gaeltacht – and, in particular, to discuss the maintenance of the existing County Council’s housing stock in Leitir Mealláin and An Cheathrú Rua.

Pictured: Garraí na Coirce, the social housing estate in Leitir Mealláin, which tenants claim is not being properly maintained.