Cllr John Byrne

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Labour Candidates Launch new Labour Policy Document on Housing.

Issued : Thursday 21 May, 2009

The Labour Party Candidates launched their new Policy on Housing document  this week in Bray.  The Launch was attended by the Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore, European Candidate Nessa Childers and Local TD Liz McManus, together with the six local election candidates, Cllr. John Byrne, Marie O’Rourke, Ronan McManus, Barry Nevin, Tracy O’Brien and Ian McGahon.

“The Government has not provided funding for new local authority housing or the purchase of houses for this purpose”, said Marie O’Rourke, candidate for Bray South Ward. “There are over 700 people on the housing list in Bray and the Council has sites for over 100 social housing units in various locations around the town. In the absence of finance the Council will not be able to proceed with these projects. This is totally unacceptable.

Cllr. John Byrne said that as well as providing much needed housing these projects would retain jobs in the building industry and provide a measure of economic activity in the town.  “Some of the direct labour resources within the Council could be used to provide much needed housing and effect repairs to the existing  housing stock. However, due to the lack of funding it is not possible to utilise the direct labour force for these capital projects".

The Labour Party will endeavour to reduce the time currently taken to carry out repairs to local authority housing.