In the latest Department of Housing scoring of local authorities, Galway City Council managed to score a big fat zero in relation to its 2022 target for building homes.
Housing Minister James Browne is drawing up plans for a new league table to track social housing delivery by local councils – similar to a schools league table – and his department’s latest figures up to 2024 for Galway’s two local authorities are not stellar.
The city council had a target to build 230 homes in 2022, but built none. The County Council managed to erect 68 houses the same year, scoring just 22 per cent of its 305 home target.
The next year was better, with both authorities managing 39 houses between them (24 county and 15 city ), meaning at least 7 per cent of targets were hit.
Last year, Galway County Council built 40 of its 358-house target, scoring 11 per cent, while the city council did much better, scoring 26 per cent after building 59 of its target 224 units.
This means Galway City Council built only 11 per cent of the houses it needed to over the last two years for which we have figures, while County Hall managed a marginally better 13 per cent of its multi-year housing target. In the city, 74 houses were built by the council over two years, a figure almost doubled in the county which managed 132.
Councils are required to spend a percentage of their tax yield on housing, and this latest scorecard is designed to allow local area residents to get a picture of how that is accomplished.
Funding
This week, central government outlined how much funding it would return to local authorities after all 31 councils raised €744 million in Local Property Taxes (LPT ).
Galway City Council has the second lowest allocation across the State, with €10,339,596. Galway County Council has a much higher allocation of €21,607,071.
Reacting to the news, City Councillor Alan Cheevers said he was disappointed he did not have this info when Fianna Fáil councillors hosted the minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, in Galway, last month.
“We’ve raised our LPT by 15 per cent – which I didn’t vote for, but it was a democratic decision – and it is disappointing again to hear we are getting a smaller allocation than Leitrim and Longford. We are a double university town, tourist destination and regional capital. This funding model has to change.”
In 2024, Galway city council raised €15.3 million in Local Property Tax.
