23 public sites identified for future housing in Offaly

A NEW map of land suitable for housing in State or semi-state ownership has identified 23 sites across Offaly.

The sites are now part of a 2,000-hectare land bank nationally, which Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government Simon Coveney has said could provide up to 50,000 new build homes.

The Offaly sites are all relatively small, with the largest being a six hectare site owned by the local authority at The Wood Fields in Edenderry, following by a 5.9 hectare site at Kylebeg, Banagher.

The land maps shows four locations in Tullamore, three each in Kilcormac, Crinkle and Edenderry, two in Clara and a single site in eight locations, Ballycumber, Ferbane, Belmont, Shinrone, Daingean, Bracknagh, Banagher and Cloneygowan.

The Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map is the result of the collation of data by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government from local authorities, the Housing Agency, and other State and semi-state bodies.

Speaking at the launch of the map the Minister said: “I want all local authorities to take up the mantle and to bring forward sites as quickly as possible for development in this way.

Opening up State-land for mixed-tenure housing is a major policy intervention: if others control scarcity in terms of land supply, they control the market. I want the State to ensure that does not happen”, the Minister said.