The stalemate between different agencies which has left 13 people assigned houses at the private Crann Ard estate in Fermoy in limbo since last November, has become even more entrenched.

The problem is that the road in that part of the estate where houses were left unsold and where the 13 were to be housed isn’t finished and there’s an outstanding snag list. Cork County Council is insisting the road is the responsiblity of the developer and not theirs. The developer, it’s understood, is no longer in business and the bank holding the bond won’t release it to allow the road to be done. Meanwhile the Munster Cooperative Housing Agency, who took the 13 people off the county council’s housing list last November offering them houses in the estate and even telling them which houses they’d been allocated, wrote to the tenants earlier this year telling them that the delay was beyond their control and that the fault lay with the county council.

All sides are now dug in and seemingly unwilling to concede, leaving the 13 would-be tenants frantic. The Avondhu understands that a number of them had given notice to their landlords late last year and are now under pressure to move out as their accommodation is being re-let. Others who managed to extend their leases don’t know whether to keep their children in schools where they are renting or enrol them for the next school year in schools closer to Crann Ard.

Cllr Noel McCarthy, who raised the matter at the northern area meeting of Cork County Council back in March, has now tabled a motion for next week’s full meeting of Cork County Council, calling on it to take the estate in charge.

“Following further enquiries I have made, my worst fears have been confirmed. Due to bureaucracy created by the assorted State agencies where no-one will take responsibility, we find ourselves in a worse situation now than previously. It’s left the 13 residents affected with a huge dilemma, not least of which is the question of whether they have been removed from Cork County Council’s housing list,” he said.

“We need a solution. The county council has an obligation to the 13 people to carry out the works to allow them to be housed. Let them take responsibility and use their own funding to carry out the works so that they can take the estate in charge. They can seek to have the bond monies drawn down afterwards,” he asserted.