Longford Councillor calls to address "ghettoization" of county

Councillor Garry Murtagh has called on the Longford County Council to write to the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and the Office of Planning Regulator CEO Niall Cussen regarding the high housing density in rural towns like Longford.

Speaking to the Council Cllr Murtagh said, “Small towns such as Longford do not have the infrastructure, resources and opportunities to support high-density housing.”

Cllr Murtagh believes that high-density housing is leading to the “ghettoization” of Longford.

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“Instead of supporting the housing crisis, we’re creating ghettoization across small towns isolating the marginalized and further compounding the socioeconomic problems that exist in our county,” remarked the Councillor.

“Through poor planning, poor design, and through poor decision-making.”

Murtagh used his own village of Abbeylara as an example.

“I’ve been out in flats in the village with no shop, no factories and no employment, Edgeworthstown has the same issues, Granard, Ballymahon, and Longford County Town.

“Myself, the County Manager, the Director of Services with responsibility for housing and planning, and the head planner have had a strong discussion about what Longford really needs.

“And for me, Longford needs hotels and factories and business parks, and more industry and more jobs.

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“And then we can talk about bringing in more condensed living to house people to work on these jobs,” he stated.

“It’s different in Dublin City, it's different in Cork City, where they have transport and factories,” said the Councillor.

Cllr Paul Ross chimed in saying, “I thoroughly agree with with Garry.”

Peggy Nolan also agreed.

“There’s such a rush to find new housing and it is a crucial part of the problems our county is facing,” she said.

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“As I’ve said before one size does not fit all, I said it when we discussed it in this chamber before, Longford Town is the commercial hub of our county.”

The Leas Cathaoirleach went on to voice her disagreement with the legislation in place.

“It’s a knee-jerk approach,” she said.

“Our county town should be the hub for business and as it is now we’re eating away at long-established businesses because people are moving in with money buying up pubs, buying up restaurants and turning them into accommodation, it’s wrong.

Stop the rush to build houses.”

Not everyone agreed with Cllr Murtagh regarding his motion, however, with the chamber split on the motion.

Councillor Uruemu Adejinmi disagreed.

“I think we have a housing crisis, we have people who are homeless looking for accommodation, families calling for accommodation for their children and people struggling to find places to live,” she remarked.

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She made clear that she fully believes in the continued provision of houses in County Longford.

Cllr Adejinmi then referred to Cllr Murtagh's statement on attracting business to the town saying, “When industry is attracted where are the workers going to live so providing accommodation should be in tandem with attracting industry.”

Councillor Mick Cahill also disagreed with Cllr Murtagh's proposal saying he believed there was a need for smaller apartments to be built around the county.

“It’s great to see earlier this week the announcement of 25 new houses for Longford town,” said Cllr Cahill.

“To be clear I am not against housing,” responded Cllr Murtagh, “I have an issue with high-density housing.”