Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady spoke out in the Dáil yesterday about the failure of the government to provide funding to local authorities, which is resulting in the running down of state-owned properties, resulting in far too many instances’ tenants being forced to live in substandard accommodation, often unfit for human habitation.
He addressed the Dáil on a Sinn Féin party motion before the Dáil on the failure of the government to fund local authorities to carry out much needed maintenance and repairs on local authority housing.
Conditions of property described during the debate would not have been out of place in a 19th century description of tenements. With stories of tenants being forced to live with damp, and black mould, causing respiratory illnesses, homes with doors rotting off the walls, storm damaged roofs left in dreadful condition for years on end.
Brady said:
“Not only is this current government the largest landlord in the state, but they are also the biggest slum landlord in the state.
They are shamelessly residing over a system where they wilfully ignore the plight of their tenants, denying local authorities the funding required to carry out much needed maintenance and repairs.
It is resulting in tens of thousands of tenants being forced to live in substandard accommodation across the state.
In Wicklow, I am dealing with families, and children on a weekly basis who have been consigned by the state to live in damp, black mould infested houses.
This is resulting in children being regularly prescribed courses of antibiotics, far too often we see the same children developing severe respiratory problems.
The only answer for many people is to seek a transfer, in some estates in Wicklow, over half of tenants are looking for transfers out of accommodation that is in far too many instances unfit for human habitation.
I do not believe that this is the fault of Councils; rather it is abundantly clear that the responsibility lies squarely with the government.
For the fact remains that the government of Taoiseach Simon Harris continues to refuse to release sufficient funds to allow Councils to carry out the badly needed maintenance and repairs.
And if this is not bad enough there are several thousand vacant and boarded up Council houses across the state.
In our own county of Wicklow there are over 140 vacant and boarded up homes, some for up to two to three years.
In Bray, there is an area used to house the elderly where there are three houses vacant, which if the council was given the funding needed to bring them up to standard would be an ideal home for older people wishing to downsize.
The reality is that to have one house boarded up in the midst of a housing crisis is nothing short of a disgrace, but to have 140 homes in Wicklow vacant and boarded up is a national scandal.
And I feel I need to repeat the fact that it is the government who simply will not release the funds for repairs that would allow Council to relet these houses.
This is despite the fact that Wicklow Council along with other local authorities across the state are continually requesting the much-needed funding from the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and Green Party Coalition, but they continue to deny the funds that would allow Council carry out pre-letting works on these houses.
At one time the Council had the staff and the funding to carry out these repairs, but during the austerity years following the Fianna Fail created housing market collapse, the government withdrew funding for the skilled workers who used to carry out this work.
Now, local authorities must compete in the private market, looking for plumbers, electricians, builders, and carpenters, at much greater cost, and who are difficult to source.
This reliance on private contractors is hugely pushing up costs.
Funding needs to be released, houses need to be fit for purposes, scheduled maintenance must be allowed to happen.
It is inexcusable that vacant and boarded-up houses would be allowed to remain like that in the middle of a housing crisis.
Particularly with scandalously long waiting lists, record numbers of homeless, and families living out of cars, box rooms, and emergency accommodation.
Taoiseach Simon Harris is failing to hold his ministers to account. I don’t know how anyone in any other area would be allowed to remain in their role after overseeing the debacle across the whole area of housing.
The government needs to immediately release the funding which would allow local authorities to both carry out the repairs necessary that would allow the thousands of vacant and boarded up houses, and to bring the existing substandard housing up to levels fit for people to live in.”