Elderly social housing tenants in Cork feel abandoned by council

Elderly social-housing tenants living in century-old homes associated with Cork’s old Fever Hospital claim they have been “abandoned” by the city council in unsuitable accommodation high up in the northside.

The oldest of the 128 red-brick terraced houses of Roche’s Buildings date back to 1879, while the rest were built in 1905, the same year as the neighbouring 48 houses in Sutton’s Buildings.

They originally served as accommodation for workers in Victoria Barracks, Murphy’s Brewery, and the Fever Hospital.

The majority of social-housing tenants in the buildings are elderly, and several told The Echo they feel they have been “abandoned” by the council, receiving what they claim are only sporadic responses to maintenance requests.

Damp

They claim their homes are prone to damp and, because of their outdated design, are not always adequate to their needs.

Kevin O’Leary is 66 and has lived there for 15 years. He says he is one of “the lucky ones”, as he is mobile and in relatively good health.

“What gets to me is that so many of the people they put up here are old people, who can barely walk. They’re put into a house where the stairs are very narrow and high. A lot of people don’t even go upstairs to bed; they sleep down in an armchair in their front room,” he says.

“Some people have rotten window frames and water flowing down their walls, and it’s very hard to get a response from the council when you ask for help.

“The council says that some of the problem is caused by tenants not clearing their chutes and downpipes. These are people who can’t climb the stairs, let alone a ladder.

“I would fear for a lot of the more elderly people up here. We’re like the land that time forgot up here.

“There’s people up here who have no one to rely on. We have two fellas working here in the community centre, Paul [O’Leary, no relation] and Pat. They give out Penny Dinners every day; they do be running around to people; they’re very good. But if it wasn’t for them, some people would have no one.”

Rotten

Paul O’Leary is 63 and has lived in Roche’s Buildings for eight years and, as Kevin said, is working in the resource centre.

Paul said: “I’m waiting two years for a new door. The door I have is rotten. I think it’s an original door, going back a hundred years. Since I’ve been below there, left and right of me have become vacant, and they both got new doors. As far as I can see, the only way to get a new door is to die.”

Maggie Blyth is 64, and she regularly makes representations on behalf of neighbours who are living in damp, unsuitable accommodation and are not computer-literate.

“I find the council next to impossible to get a response from, and when they do reply it’s to say they can’t respond to me, that they can only talk to the tenants,” she says. “A lot of these people aren’t online, so how are they supposed to get in touch with the council?”

Kevin O’Leary asks: “Why did the council send all these elderly people up to live on the top of a mountain, in houses that are damp and half-falling down, where there’s hardly any buses, and forget about them?” Residents say the service operated by the 209 bus route, which connects the area to the city centre on a thrice-daily basis, only offers them transport on a mid-morning, lunchtime, and mid-afternoon basis.

This means, they say, they are “stranded” if they require transport outside of those times, or else have to depend upon taxis, while they are similarly dependent on taxis for routes not covered by the 209.

According to Paul O’Leary, many of the residents are pensioners who need to get to the post office in Blackpool.

“You’re talking a tenner each way, and if they want to visit the hospital, that’s €20 each way. That’s completely out of their budget.”

Bus Éireann is contracted to operate the 209 route by the National Transport Authority. A spokesperson for Bus Éireann said that under the BusConnects programme, the route will be replaced by one that will deliver “a significant increase in service levels in this area, with significant enhancement to frequency across all days of the week”.

Noel O’Flynn is a former Fianna Fáil TD and is currently a city councillor in the north-eastern ward.

He began his political career in 1991, successfully seeking election to then Cork Corporation as a Fianna Fáil candidate.

He still has a piece of election literature from then, featuring a photograph of an outside toilet at Roche’s Buildings, captioned: “Is this how we treat our senior citizens?”.

No longer fit for purpose 

He says Roche’s Buildings and Sutton’s Buildings are “no longer fit for purpose” and need to be brought up to a suitable standard.

He says he has received a favourable response to representations he has made to the council on behalf of tenants.

“I’m very pleased with the answer from the director of housing, who has responded, the other night at our council meeting, saying: ‘Yes, work must be done, we’re going to start some works immediately, replacing chutes and ensuring that the roofs and velux windows are repaired or replaced’,” he said.

“The insulation is a bigger job, and may involve moving people out of their homes for a short period and moving them back in again, or it may involve moving them into the ones that have been brought up to some form of standard, which is the BER [Building Energy Rating] 2.”

It is vital, he adds, that “people in their twilight years” have somewhere decent to live “free from cold and dampness”.

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said it operates a full response maintenance service to Roches and Suttons Buildings.

“A programme has begun to address issues around rainwater protection in Roches Buildings, dealing initially with guttering and down pipes. Any outstanding issues around roof and Velux leaks will also be addressed as part of this programme,” they said.

“A similar programme will be progressed for Suttons Buildings in early 2026.

“Requests for window and door replacements are assessed on a case-by-case basis.”