Head of housing at City Hall says resolving issues at Noonan's Rd and surrounding areas is 'top priority'
Local councillors and City Hall officials visited residents in Noonan's Road and St Finbarr's Road in Cork recently. Picture: Howard Crowdy
The head of housing at Cork City Council has written to city councillors to assure them that the city council executive’s “top priority” is resolving issues related to local authority housing at Noonan’s Road and the surrounding area.
Niall Ó Donnabháin, director services at the city council’s housing directorate, wrote to council members of the Cork City Council South-Central ward local area committee (LAC) on Tuesday, telling them the council “very aware of the sensitivities in this case … as Noonan’s Road and adjacent units are occupied and are people’s homes”.
Mr Ó Donnabháin’s letter comes as local authority tenants on Noonan’s Road, St Finbarr’s Road, Fort Street and Dean Street have received letters telling them members of the housing directorate intend to visit their homes in the coming weeks “to discuss any concerns you may have regarding your accommodation”.
has, over the past month, highlighted shocking living conditions in the 60-year-old flat complexes, and council tenants have spoken about living in dilapidated and dangerous buildings which are prone to leaks, damp, black mould and rodent infestation.
Those council tenants complained of feeling “abandoned” and “ignored” by Cork City Council over years and sometimes decades, and following our coverage, the city council chief executive Ann Doherty visited two of the four flat complexes two weeks ago.
During her visit to Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road, Ms Doherty, who has been chief executive for nine years, said she was “shocked” at the living conditions endured by council tenants.
Last week, published details from a leaked Cork City Council internal, draft, report on the Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road flats.
That report, dating from December 2022, found “major structural defects” in the Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road flats, and recommended the complete demolition of the buildings.
The draft report found: structural cracks in each of the apartment blocks, the connections anchoring the roofs to the masonry walls were described as “insufficient”; the connections between internal and external walls were “insufficient”; and a lack of mortar was found in the masonry of approximately half of the buildings.
In his letter this week to Cork City South-Central LAC members, Mr Ó Donnabháin states that “by way of background to current matters being discussed in the media”, the council had engaged consultants to assess the buildings for a possible retrofit of the flats under the Department of Housing’s 2021 Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP).
Mr Ó Donnabháin goes on to say that “structural issues were identified with the buildings that would need resolution to facilitate an extensive retrofit programme”.
Saying that a “draft internal report was prepared for internal discussion which summarised key findings and issues and outlined a possible preferred redevelopment option”, Mr Ó Donnabháin says:
“As a follow-on to receipt of this report, it was determined that, while structural issues exist that would impact on the implementation of any retrofit programme, the buildings at Noonan’s Road, St Finbarr’s Road, Fort Street and Dean Street are not unsafe.”
It is understood that the unpublished December 2022 report will inform a further report on the future of the flat complexes, a report which Ms Doherty told tenants two weeks ago would be published in September.
According to Mr Ó Donnabháin: “This report is currently being prepared and a comprehensive overview will be presented on opportunities and next steps to councillors and residents in the autumn”.
He further states: “The concerns and issues of the tenants and homeowners in these complexes is our primary concern”, adding that staff will visit each home and speak with each tenant.
“Staff will speak with and listen to residents and put in place a realistic and appropriate course of action to attend to repairs and works and determine people’s longer term housing preferences.
“At all times, staff will make it clear that any large-scale redevelopment will be subject to extensive consultation and engagement and government funding approval and will understandably take time to bring to fruition.”
Mr Ó Donnabháin’s letter concludes that “matters at Noonan’s Road and the surrounding residential complexes are being given top priority by the city council, led by the housing directorate, with the full support of the chief executive, and the assistant chief executive.
"This approach is essential in live and complex accommodation interventions.
“We will work together over the coming months to fully resolve this issue,” Mr Ó Donnabháin states.
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