The 30-year-old battle for the extension of the Limerick city boundaries will see a temporary truce next Tuesday when key officials from the three jurisdictions meet in Ennis.
This week Limerick Corporation adopted the housing strategy document put forward by the city manager, Mr Brendan Keating, in accordance with the 1998 Development Plan. The only problem is the corporation has no land on which to build houses within its boundary. Mr Dick Tobin, newly-promoted chief planning officer, told the members of the corporation most of the 240 acres of land suitable for development in the city was not readily available. It is open space or in the hands of religious orders or Government institutions and may not come on the market for many years. "The purpose of the housing strategy is to achieve a delivery of social and affordable housing on an agreeable basis," Mr Tobin said.
Mr Conn Murray, assistant city manager, said: "As far as the corporation is concerned, over the next three to five years we will be looking outside our boundary for the development of houses".
Housing strategy, he said, is part of the Development Act 2000 and is part of the statutory responsibilities of Limerick Corporation and Clare and Limerick County Councils. He added that Tuesday's meeting would be going into discussions on a joint basis to see how that could be achieved.
Mr Murray said the local authorities would be working together very closely. "Because we have a restricted supply of land within our boundary we will have no choice in order to satisfy the housing needs but to seek and acquire land outside our boundary."
He said they would be making the demand for an extension of the borough boundary very clear in time. Only 52,000 of the Limerick population of over 82,000 live within the borough boundary. Under EU convention, Limerick is still the third city in the Republic despite the fact that Galway, which recently got a boundary extension, has now a population of 55,000.
Mr Willie Moloney, Clare county manager, said: "In principle we would have no difficulty in accommodating Limerick. It will be dealt with in the same way as any other planning application. The general objective of all housing authorities is to get a proper social mix whether it be private or public-authority houses.
"We always agree that there should be co-operation between planning authorities and that you do not need to extend your area jurisdiction in order to achieve proper planning in the environs of the town or city."
Mr Moloney said he was unaware the average price of new and second-hand houses in Clare was at £100,000 each, £5,000 higher than in Limerick. The national average, according to the 1999 Government figures, was estimated at £120,000. Mr Moloney said the cost of building land in Clare was high.