A Fine Gael Councillor has criticized Waterford Council for failing to purchase a derelict pub in Ballybeg.

Ryan’s Pub was destroyed by a fire almost 8 years ago.

John Cummins says the local authority could have bought the site for 50 thousand euro to develop housing for older people.

He says “It went up online for sale for 50 thousand euro, it took the council about a month to come back after putting me through a number of
hoops in saying it could not be done for housing for X and Y reasons, for me to go directly to the Minister for him to say we will commit to housing delivery at that
and by the time we had actually got our ducks in order, the property had been taken off the market”.

He says the new potential owners plan to develop housing on the site while the Council could have done it at a cheaper price.

Independent Councillor Cha O’Neill said he has been raising this issue for the last eight years. He claims if the pub had been in any other part of the City or County
it would have been demolished a long time ago and CPO’d and housing would have been built on the site by now.