Some 500 social housing units under construction across Donegal

More than 500 social housing units are under construction in Donegal out of a total of more than 1,100 that have been completed recently or are in the pipeline, Donegal County Council has said.

Figures presented to a special meeting of the local authority on Monday show a total of 511 social housing units are being built across the county in 23 separate projects.

The housing units are being built in towns and villages including Bundoran, Dungloe, Letterkenny, Raphoe, Kilcar, Ballyliffin, Carndonagh, Gleneely, Convoy, Donegal Town, Ballybofey, Letterkenny, Gweedore and Castlefinn.

The housing developments range in size from six one-off specific instance (SI) houses to a 100-unit project at Killylastin in Letterkenny and a development of 54 homes in Buncrana.

John Gallagher, senior engineer with the council’s housing section, told the meeting that 759 units are either complete or on site, meaning contracts have been signed for the developments and they are at various stages of construction.

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There are also six turnkey projects that have full planning approval for a total of 216 units.

Overall, he said there are more than 1,100 housing units either complete or in the pipeline.

The figures show that there are 108 units in the pipeline as  part of council “in-house projects” that are at  tendering stage, including developments at Lifford Common (60 units), Tamney (10 units), St Johnston 30 units) and Stranorlar (eight units).

A further 40 units as part of design and build projects are under construction with a further 100 at design stage.

The council is also developing two Letterkenny “flagship projects” of 170 units at  Ballymacool and 150 at High Road.

Director of housing, corporate and cultural services Patsy Lafferty said there are significant numbers of houses at different stages of planning but there are certain issues outside the council’s control. 

Councillors broadly welcomed the update from the council but expressed concerns about a range of issues including the speed of delivery of housing projects, the lack of housing provision outside the large towns and a deficit in the infrastructure required to facilitate housing developments in some parts of the county.