City Council promises action on shocking living conditions at Noonan's Road 

Within 24 hours of a visit by members of the Cork City Council executive to 60-year -old social housing on Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road, tenants have been asked to supply the council with a list of necessary repairs and remedial work.

Local authority tenants have claimed the council has “abandoned” them for years in rodent-infested, mould-ridden, dilapidated homes, and their plight has been highlighted in recent weeks by The Echo.

On Monday night, Cork City Council chief executive Ann Doherty visited the neighbouring flat complexes, accompanied by assistant chief executive Brian Geaney and city architect Tony Duggan.

Speaking to tenants after visiting some of the homes, Ms Doherty said she was “shocked” at the living conditions there, and apologised to the tenants.

“All I can do is say is I’m really sorry that you’ve been let down over the years,” she said.

Describing her visit as “sobering”, Ms Doherty suggested the flats were past the point of renovation and needed replacement, which would require funding from central Government.

She added: “We haven’t held ourselves in good light with this community, have we?” 

Ms Doherty added that she intended to immediately address outstanding maintenance issues.

Within a day of the executive’s visit, local residents were contacted by Fine Gael councillor Shane O’Callaghan, who is chair of the Cork South Central ward councillors, to say the assistant chief executive, Mr Geaney, had asked that residents furnish the council with a list of works which need immediate attention.

Happy at Progress

William O’Brien, a community activist who has been working to bring living conditions in the flats to public attention, said residents were happy that progress was apparently being made.

“When I messaged the residents, they all came back and said ‘This is great news, we’ll get the list together,’ and I think they’re delighted that there appears now to be a relationship there, where the executive is engaging with the local community now,” he said.

Mr O’Brien, who is chair of the Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road residents’ committee, said that now that tenants were organised, they intended to ensure they would not be forgotten again.

Cllr Shane O’Callaghan said the benefit of Monday night’s visit by the executive had been that it had served as “an eye-opener” to the serious problems faced by tenants.

“It really brought home the point that something needs to be done, both in terms of the report which is awaited in September about a long-term solution, whether that’s a major refurbishment or a demolition and rebuild of the entire place, and also it brought home to the executive that in the short term, things need to be done, urgently, in terms of maintenance and the standard of accommodation,” he said.

Cllr O’Callaghan said that he had spoken with the assistant chief executive on Tuesday, and Mr Geaney had asked him to liaise with Mr O’Brien about putting together a list of maintenance works which needed to be completed urgently.

“I would have to say that Mr Geaney is an extremely competent and proactive director who gets things done, and the fact that he is giving this his attention now is hugely positive,” Cllr O’Callaghan said.

During Monday night’s visit by members of the executive, tenants had pointed out two dead rats on the corner of Noonan’s Road and 98 Street, a sign of the area’s ongoing rodent infestation.

On Wednesday morning, Mr O’Brien told The Echo that another rat had been caught in one of the overgrown gardens there earlier that morning.