Questions over why housing applicants at top of list denied new homes by Wexford council

Three social housing applicants ranked 1-3 on Wexford County Council’s housing list for Carrig-on-Bannow were expected to receive new homes but found the properties had been allocated elsewhere. Concerns were raised at a Rosslare Municipal District meeting about possible “district hopping” or someone jumping the list. A housing officer stated that people in a Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) who receive a notice to quit are automatically housed under national policy, and that RAS tenants had received termination notices before they were housed. Two of the RAS tenants had Carrig-on-Bannow among their listed area preferences, while the third required checking and was believed to be a disability applicant.

"“It appears that someone has jumped the list,” she said. “I was representing three people who were numbers 1-3, and none of them were given the three houses that were allocated. Can someone explain what has happened?”"

"“Anyone who is in a rental accommodation scheme (RAS) house that gets a notice to quit is automatically housed, that's national policy,” she asked. “In this instance there were a couple of RAS tenants who had received a notice of termination and we hadn't yet housed them.”"

"“Yes, two of them definitely had. The third one I'll have to check,” replied Ms Ryan. “So the third person was hopping from another district?” asked Cllr Carthy. “I'd imagine it was a disability applicant, so it's not that someone skipped the list,” said Ms Ryan."

Read at Irish Independent