Nolan fury over city authority telling people to go to ‘soft touch’ Longford

A county councillor has expressed her fury at another local authority for encouraging those looking for social housing to go to “soft touch” Longford. Councillor Peggy Nolan voiced her anger during a recent sitting of the County Council and said she “makes no apologies” for insisting that housing priority be afforded to people born in Longford, and were lifelong contributors to the county “like their families before them.”

The Longford councillor pointed out that “on more than one occasion that people with no affinity to Longford” were succeeding in securing a local authority house ahead of those that had grown up in the county.

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She said, “We built more local authority houses than any other county in Ireland but they’re not going to the people who are working here, went to school here, were born and raised here, and are contributing to the life that once was Longford. All you have to do is walk down the town and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

“Before I’m called ‘anti’ anything, I’m all for fair play, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, if you’re entitled to a house, absolutely! But when you have young couples from this town who have been here all their lives contributing, and likewise their families before them, they have to be afforded some sort of priority and I don’t make any apologies for saying that.”

During her address, Cllr Nolan highlighted her frustration with what she described as the housing team’s “new way of doing things”, adding that it was consequently preventing councillors from doing their jobs. She also emphasised the need for her previously requested special meeting on housing so it could be discussed “just what exactly is happening.”

“I would like to know who is benefitting from this?” she asked. “Can I just give an example? A couple of months ago, I was waiting to see a member of the housing team in the housing offices in Market Square and I got chatting to a lady from another county who was waiting also. She told me she had been looking for a house for ages so I asked her why she had chosen Longford; if she had family or friends here. Oh no! Where she’s from, they haven't built a local authority house since 2009, and people are being told by that city authority to come to Longford, because we’re the soft touch.”

Addressing Cllr Nolan, Director of Services for Housing, Communities and HR Samantha Healy, asked for clarification as to whether it was the response within the housing team that she would like to have a meeting about or the specific issue that she had given an example of.

In response, Cllr Nolan said, “It’s not the response because the people I’m working with, I’ve been working with since they took up the position and they’re brilliant. I can’t ring up now and seek a meeting with the people I’m used to seeking a meeting with, I have to put it in an email. Making reps I can’t do by phone or by email.”

“Before, you could go in and make a case and it would be dealt with with empathy and compassion, and the specific case before them would be taken into account. Now it’s a box ticking exercise that I just can’t cope with. I need to be able to tell the stories behind the boxes.

I’m not giving out about the team that’s in housing. I’m here to give out about and question the new regime that isn’t working for councillors, it’s working against us. It’s preventing me from doing what I know best.”

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Ms Healy replied that a number of members had raised the issue with her and so she proposed that “the allocation scheme come back for review to the SPC, so it is on the forthcoming SPC agenda in October.”

Upon repeatedly pressing for a date for the emergency special meeting to sort the matter at hand, Cllr Nolan was told it would be facilitated shortly.