Co Longford is not likely to be able to benefit from the affordable housing scheme under the Housing for All plan.
The bad news was relayed to members of Longford Municipal District at its monthly meeting yesterday.
Director of Services John Brannigan was replying to a general query for an update on the affordable housing scheme from Councillor Peggy Nolan when he broke the news to council members yesterday.
He revealed he's been involved in a number of meetings with the Department since the announcement of Housing for All some weeks ago but there's no good news on affordable housing for the county.
John Brannigan says the Department has developed 7 criteria that a county has to meet to be eligible for affordable housing and Longford will fail the first one immediately.
The Director of Services says the first criteria is using data from the Central Statistics Office that doesn't appreciate the cost of new housing construction.
The scheme he says, can't look at stock that's currently out there on the market because there is no new stock in Longford or in Leitrim or in Cavan and there's a cohort of counties that this scheme won't be applicable too.
Members heard the Department has so far identified just 14 counties nationwide where the scheme will be applicable.
John Brannigan says he's been telling the department there needs to be some element of affordable new housing in Co Longford for the past 6 years but sadly the message doesn't appear to be getting through.
He's to give a full report on the affordable housing issue to members of the full County Council at the next monthly meeting.
