Cork City Council tenants are living in ‘sick buildings’

A COMMUNITY activist who intends to run for a seat on Cork City Council next year has expressed concern that some city council tenants are living in properties with “severe cases of mould”.

William O’Brien, who plans on running as an Independent candidate for the city’s South Central ward in the next local elections, said issues of dampness and mould in local-authority-owned homes must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

He said that World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that sufficient epidemiological evidence is available to show that the occupants of damp or mouldy buildings, both houses and public buildings, are at increased risk of respiratory symptoms, respiratory infections, and exacerbation of asthma.

Mr O’Brien said in one instance recently, a city council tenant living in a property off Mount Sion Rd claimed that their mould-contaminated home was assessed by an engineer months ago, but no follow-up measures have yet been taken.

“I have been told that a local authority engineer assessed this property months ago with no urgent follow-up action to solve the building’s mould problem, or administration follow-up to communicate on an interpersonal level with this distressed tenant who is looking out for [their] family’s health,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring situation for many local authority tenants around our city.”

Mr O’Brien said he believes sufficient funds are not being invested into maintaining the city council’s existing housing stock.

“A lot of rent is paid by tenants to Cork City Council … and from what I’ve seen there doesn’t seem to be much going back into people’s homes."

“There are some severe cases of mould around our city, and people are just left to live with it,” he continued.

Mr O’Brien, who has previously spoken out about the well-publicised instances of mould and other issues at council-owned flats on Noonan’s Rd, said that some council tenants are living in “sick buildings”.

“People have said that about the water-damaged buildings people living in on Noonan’s Rd and other areas are in, they’re sick buildings."

Cork City Council was contacted for comment.

In relation to council-owned flats at Noonan’s Rd, St Finbarr’s Rd, Dean St, and Fort St, a spokesperson for the city council told The Echo in recent days that the council’s housing delivery and regeneration directorate is at “feasibility assessment stage for the future redevelopment of the flat complexes” and proposes to hold a public consultation event “with regard to the future placemaking options” early next year.

The city council spokesperson said while the long-term plans for the area are being advanced, the housing operations directorate “will remain in contact with residents and attend to housing maintenance issues and concerns as appropriate”.