A Fianna Fáil councillor told voters in the Limerick town of Askeaton that he had a ‘‘definite guarantee’’ that no one from the troubled Moyross area of Limerick city would be allocated a new council house in the town.Kevin Sheahan made the promise in a letter to constituents three days before the local and European elections on June 5. He was reelected to Limerick County Council, reports the Sunday Business Post today.
In his letter on council headed notepaper, Sheahan wrote: ‘‘Like all communities, there are serious concerns in Askeaton. So let me deal with the first one: I have received a very definite guarantee that there will not be any people coming from Moyross or any other part of Limerick city to the new council houses in Church Street.”
However, Eugene Griffin, the council secretary, said that ‘‘the policy of excluding persons from any particular area is illegal, and no such policy exists in county Limerick or nationally. Therefore, no such guarantee was provided to Councillor Sheahan,” he said, adding that the views expressed in the letter did not necessarily reflect the views of the local authority.
Sheahan, who got 49 per cent of the vote in Askeaton in the local elections, said he sent the letters because of concerns raised on the doorsteps that the 23 council houses in Askeaton were being allocated as part of the Limerick regeneration scheme. Some 250 homes in Moyross and other areas of Limerick are being demolished as part of the €3.1 billion regeneration project, designed to help tackle crime and poverty in the city.
