“It’s hard enough to save money renting when the price of rent would be more than what you’d pay on a mortgage.”
Those are the thoughts of Sinn Féin Councillor Donnchadh Mulcahy who believes there is not enough housing in the far west of County Waterford.
Asked how often the issue of housing is raised to him, the Tallow Councillor responded:
“It’s one I deal with every day and every time you get a phone call it’s either ‘my landlord is selling the house’ or ‘I have nowhere to go’ and it breaks my heart.”
“It’s tough to take these phone calls and realistically you can try your best but the houses just aren’t there and you can see the affects of it.”
“If you have a young family it’s very hard to see anywhere pushing forward.”
Cllr Mulcahy gained his seat as part of the Dungarvan / Lismore district in 2024 and he believes more housing is needed in order to lower prices.
Asked how could young people who have emigrated could be enticed to come back to Ireland, the Councillor responded:
“We need more social and affordable housing. With the price of housing around here, it’s very hard to pay those sort of mortgages when you’re talking about three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand of a mortgage.”
The Sinn Féin Cllr reflected on his own personal experience of emigration.
“I think our biggest export is people. A lot of my friends have done it. We go away for a year or two but a lot of my friends that went away. They never came home. They kind of have this little bit of bitterness towards Ireland.”
“A lot of them won’t come home. We need to make some sort of package that is appealing to our young people to come back to Ireland, to start their family, to spend the rest of their life here.”
“A lot of them do want to come home but they just can’t see the future here.”
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