'Nothing for Portarlington' few social houses for second biggest Laois town

A Laois councillor is complaining that his rapidly growing town is being left behind for new council housing.

Portarlington in Laois has more than doubled in size in two decades and is still growing, now at nearly 9,300 people and second only to Portlaoise which has nearly 24,000.

Despite this, out of the 505 social houses under construction or planned in Laois, just 27 will be built in Portarlington. The town has a tenth of the county's residents, but is getting just one twentieth of the new social homes.

Cllr Aidan Mullins is unhappy that his constitutents are not being served, right down to the lack of planned home energy retrofits.

He spoke out at the Laois County Council monthly meeting on February 24.

"When you drill in, it doesn't make for good reading. The figures in Portarlington are nearly bottom of the list. there is nothing for this year, nothing for next year. That's under four headings. It's very difficult to understand.

"The 12 houses listed in Portarlington for this year have already been finished. There's no land bank. Nothing for next year.

"At design stage there's 231 listed, Portlaoise will get 118 of them, Portarlington will get 12 for the elderly and two apartments. There's none in the pipeline. It doesn't make sense.

"Out of 164 affordable homes to be built, 139 are in Portlaoise, 15 in Portarlington. It's Portlaoise centric all the time. Someone is taking their eye off the ball here. On four headings of social housing, it's bottom of the list. That includes energy efficiency and retrofits, nothing.

"Why is the second largest town being ignored for social housing?" he asked.

Cllr Mullins also asks about the people on the council's housing list waiting for a tenanted home in their own town.

"If they are given an offer and it's outside the town, the inconvenience of that," he said.

In reply to him, Director of Services and Portarlington town manager Donal Brennan said he will go through figures.

"I am more than happy to engage with Cllr Mullins on housing in that area," he said.

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In it's monthly report, the council lists 274 social homes under construction this year, but only 12 are in Portarlington, being the final phase of Ballymorris Green, for older people.

They plan 15 social homes in the future, include two in one building on French Church Street, approved to go ahead in 2025. There will be 11 2-bedroom houses on Bracklone Street, built directly by the council, and two further homes on the same street, size not yet decided.

The homes include both apartments and houses, built either directly by Laois County Council contractors, or by Approved Housing Bodies for council tenants.

Portarlington has a population of nearly 9,300 people, most of them on the Laois side of the Barrow river. Between 2002 and 2022 it grew by 132%. It is predicted to rise by another 1,200 people by 2027.