Flaherty and Carrigy at loggerheads over Longford's affordable housing woes

Fianna Fáil's Joe Flaherty and his Fine Gael counterpart Micheal Carrigy have offered up differing views as to the likelihood of such a scheme coming on stream in the short to medium future.

The former announced last December of how local authority officials were set to address local councillors about the plans.

The best part of a month on, Fine Gael Senator Micheal Carrigy launched a thinly veiled swipe at Mr Flaherty who sits on the Oireachtas' Housing, Local Government and Heritage Committee.

“Despite comments in the media by other Oireachtas members, no scheme has been sanctioned for Longford as of now,” he said.

“When the initial scheme was announced last year, under the criteria set out Longford was not eligible.

“Further changes were made later to make certain towns in ineligible counties for the original scheme eligible.

“To date Longford Longford does not meet the criteria despite the fact we have an Oireachtas member on the Housing Committee.”

In response, Mr Flaherty revealed Department of Housing officials travelled to Longford as recently as last Friday to hold fresh talks with senior county council bosses.

The Lanesboro native went on to explain how he believed that not only was a formal announcement in the pipeline, but maintained further potentially larger developments remained a distinct possibility.

“I have met with officials from Longford County Council and the Department (of Housing) on a number of occasions in relation to affordable housing,” hesaid.

The Fianna Fáil TD insisted the Department had “done everything possible” to facilitate the rollout of an affordable housing scheme in an overture which has been reciprocated at local authority level.

Affordable housing, by its workings, is aimed at helping first-time buyers who struggle to obtain traditional mortgages, purchase a home.

The aim is to make homes available at a reduced purchase price of around €250,000 across the country.

A subsidy of up to €100,000 is provided by a local authority toward the cost of a home with the council keeping a stake of up to 30pc in the home.

Mr Flaherty said while the finer details of Longford's first venture into that area was yet to be revealed, there was no denying the demand for it locally.

“I expect that (first) scheme for a small number of units wll be oversubscribed and will pave the way for further schemes in the very near future,” he added.