230 applications for two-bed house on Wexford County Council’s online portal ‘a damning indictment of government policy’

A two bedroom bungalow at Ard Uisce on Whiterock Hill in Wexford town was advertised to social housing applicants on Wexford County Council’s ‘Choice Based Letting’ system and saw applications from in excess of 230 hopefuls in what has been described as “a damning indictment of government housing policy”.

Along with many of his council colleagues, Labour's Cllr George Lawlor has grown exasperated dealing with frustrated people who have just become numbers on Wexford County Council’s housing list.

Local representatives have expressed a feeling of hopelessness as they are unable to offer these people on the other end of the phone any light at the end of the tunnel.

"This house in Ard Uisce is a prime example,” Cllr Lawlor said. “We’ve had over 230 expressions of interest for a single two-bed house in less than a week. In my view this really is a damning indictment of government housing policy."

Cllr Lawlor is not alone in this view. Sinn Féin councillor Tom Forde has blasted the government’s ‘Housing For All’ plan on numerous occasions and his Labour counterpart agrees that it's simply not working.

"Housing for All is sadly lacking in ambition," Cllr Lawlor said. “It only asks us to deliver one third of the houses that we need to clear our housing list.

"The interest in this single house is indicative of the scale of the problem we face in what appears to be a perennial crisis. We need to be ambitious in relation to housing. We need a Covid-style response where all of the red tape goes out the window and we just go for it and get the required housing units delivered.

"The standard of the housing we’re providing these days is top class, but we really need to be more ambitious,” he concluded.