Publish all council flats reports, says Cork TD

A CORK TD has called on Cork City Council to publish any and all reports the council may have commissioned on council-owned social housing flat complexes.

Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, said a 2022 email to party colleague, councillor Eolan Ryng, proved the existence of unpublished reports into council flats across the city.

Mr Gould made his remarks after Niall Ó Donnabháin, director of services at the city council’s housing directorate, wrote this week to councillors assuring them that the council executive’s “top priority” was resolving issues related to local authority housing at Noonan’s Road and surrounding areas.

Mr Ó Donnabháin’s letter came after The Echo published last week details from an unpublished Cork City Council draft report on the Noonan’s Road and St Finbarr’s Road flats. The unpublished draft report on the flats, dating from December 2022, had found “major structural defects” in the flats, and recommended in the strongest terms the complete demolition of the buildings.

Writing this week to councillors, Mr Ó Donnabháin stressed that “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”.

Mr Gould said an email sent to Mr Ryng last year established that the council had further unpublished reports on its flat complexes.

That email, seen by The Echo, is dated August 9, 2022, and relates to an assessment of balconies on council flats.

In October 2021, Mr Ryng submitted a motion to Cork City Council calling for “an immediate safety inspection of the verandas of the flats at Clashduv Road, Sycamore Place, and Togher Road”.

The following summer he received a mail from a member of the housing executive saying: “We have completed a comprehensive survey/assessment of our balconies across the city, initiated by the issues with the balconies at Clashduv Road. Works are obviously required but it was important to be clear on the nature of same.

“There is no doubt it needs to be done and that we have a duty of care to do so and will seek to do so as soon as we can.”

Mr Gould said the email was proof of further reports into council flats.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said: “These reports are often unit-specific and element-specific and, therefore, the publication of all such reports would be impractical and inappropriate where they relate to tenants’ individual homes or issues.”