Social housing protest: TD slams Cork City Council over lack of action

A Cork TD told has told a public protest that the executive of Cork City Council doesn’t “give a shit” about social housing tenants or working class people.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould was speaking at a rally in a Cork city estate which was built less than 15 years ago and which tenants say is “overrun” with rats and full of homes prone to leaking roofs, damp, mildew and mould.

Some 40 Council tenants of the Glentrasna estate in The Glen gathered on Thursday evening to protest what they say are poor living conditions, shoddy building work, a rat infestation, and persistent inaction by their landlord, Cork City Council.

Mr Gould told the tenants they were the victims of a failure by the city council to invest in maintenance over the past 10 years.

“And if ye don’t fight, ye’ll be in the same position in 10 years’ time, because they don’t give a shit about people in social housing or working class people, and that’s the facts of it,” Mr Gould said.

The Glentrasna estate consists of just over 100 houses, most of which are social housing homes, and most of the development was completed by 2010.

Despite being a very new estate, its tenants say leaks and damp are recurring problems and they claim Cork City Council has done little to address those problems.

Further, they say, a problem with rats on the estate has been allowed by the council to reach a point where residents are fearful about letting their children play outdoors, while a claim was made that the infestation meant there were now more rats in the houses than human beings.

Christa Daley, who was one of those who organised Thursday’s protest said she was “absolutely thrilled” with the turnout, and she said the tenants would not stop protesting until the chief executive of Cork City Council, Ann Doherty, visited Glentrasna, just as she had visited council tenants protesting against shocking condition on Noonan’s Road in July.

“I would love the chief executive to come up here and see the conditions that particularly the most vulnerable people in this estate are living in,” Ms Daley said.

“Given that there was a precedent set by her visit to Noonan’s Road, I hope she will follow suit and show us the same energy.” Socialist Party councillor Brian McCarthy agreed that the executive needed to visit Glentrasna.

“No-one should have to live like this. This estate is overrun with rats. It’s an absolute disgrace,” Cllr McCarthy said.

He added that an immediate health emergency needed to be declared for the entire estate until the rat infestation was addressed.

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins said it was very important that tenants be treated with respect.

“Cork City Council, the landlord here, is failing their tenants. Point blank. That’s the point here,” Cllr Collins said, adding that chief executive Ann Doherty needed to visit Glentrasna.

“She’s the CEO of the city. The head of housing, of housing maintenance, and Ann Doherty, need to come up here and see the conditions people are being forced to live in,” he said.

Socialist Party TD Mick Barry said conditions in Glentrasna had until now been problems for individual tenants, but because tenants were now speaking out, those conditions were now a collective problem.

“No-one at all, let alone people with young kids, should be forced to live in conditions where you’re worried are you going to see rats in and around the house today,” he said.

“No-one at all, let alone people with young kids, should be forced to live in conditions that have damp, that have mould, that means people who have asthma, colds and sickness arising from that.” William O’Brien, who has been advocating for council tenants living in poor housing conditions in Noonan’s Road, St Finbarr’s Road, Fort Street and Dean Street, said that social housing tenants across the city needed to take strength from their own voices and from the voices of others.

“Even when you feel like running away, it’s about coming together, when people come together, the people that haven’t been listening for years have to start listening, and their only dread is that people realise that tenants have rights, and when we stick together, we have power,” Mr O’Brien said.

Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan said he and his comrades had been fighting for better housing conditions for people living in The Glen 50 years ago, and very little had changed in half a century.

He said that highlighting problems in one house was futile, but “when you highlight 20, or 30, or 40, or 50, that’s the battle line,” he said.

A newly constituted Glentrasna residents’ committee is planning a second protest in the estate at 5.30pm on Tuesday 12 September.

Cork City Council did not respond when asked on Wednesday for a comment on Glentrasna tenants’ claims that their complaints had not been taken seriously.