People in Louth 'can't even afford affordable housing' as Council defends housing delivery

People in Louth "can't even afford affordable housing" according to Labour councillor Pio Smith. 

Cllr Smith's comments came at the March meeting of Louth County Council in which he questioned the "definition of affordable". 

"An awful lot of people are telling me they can’t even afford affordable housing at the minute. It seems a bit crazy the way things have gone with house prices and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better," he said. 

He also questioned what the Council's targets are regarding affordable housing for 2026. 

Ger Murphy, Director of Housing and Cultural Delivery with Louth County Council said the local authority missed its target of 226 units between 2022 and 2025. 

However, he said Louth County Council had made "significant headway" in terms of delivering schemes across the county. 

Mr Murphy said the Council has delivered schemes in Ardee and most recently Usher's Mill in Drogheda. 

"That portal [Usher's Mill] opened for a week and by the time that week ended we had 10 successful applications that we have issued offers on. So it's building that momentum," he said. 

He said Louth County Council is "working well with developers and other agencies", and said the local authority is hopeful that "a number of schemes" will be delivered in the "next number of months" in Dundalk.

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Mr Murphy concluded that it hopes to exceed the targets set out in the Government's "Delivering Homes, Building Communities" plan which runs between 2025-2030. 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.