People in Cork flats 'are in a bad way, living with mould, cold, rats’

Community activist William O’Brien was at the forefront of the 2023 campaign by residents of Cork’s south inner city to draw attention to living conditions in the O’Byrne flats on Noonan’s Rd, St Finbarr’s Rd, Fort St, and Dean St.

A social housing tenant himself, he and his family live in a property managed by approved housing body Clúid — “They are superb landlords and are setting the standard that others need to follow,” he says.

When he became involved in the residents’ campaign, people were, he says, despairing.

“You had such ongoing neglect, with people feeling that nobody was listening to them, you had people paying their rent, and living with mould and damp cold, and rats running through the walls and the ceilings."

“As is often the case in social housing, you had a really brilliant community, with people who had been living in the area for generations, but they were living in dreadful circumstances, and they felt they were being ignored.

Well past knock-by date

The three-floor maisonette O’Byrne flats — “balcony flats” as they might be known in Dublin — were introduced in the 1960s by Cork City’s then architect Eamon O’Byrne, and were meant to have a 50-year lifespan. By summer 2023, the flats in the Noonan’s Rd area were well past their knock-by date.

On the outside, they were crumbling, with chunks of masonry falling from fascias and balconies, and on the inside, they were wet with damp, black with mould, and crawling with rats.

A series of articles helped to publicise the conditions that residents were enduring, and in July, the then chief executive Ann Doherty and her deputy Brian Geaney visited the area, accompanied by other members of the council executive.

“It made people’s circumstances impossible for the council to ignore,” Mr O’Brien believes.

Two months after that visitation, the council told tenants it favoured demolition of the Noonan’s Rd, St Finbarr’s Rd, Fort St, and Dean St flats.

The executive said this would require a phased and temporary relocation of all residents, “with an option to return to the redeveloped new homes in due course, or, if they so wish, remain living at their relocated home”.

Three years later, the Noonan’s Rd flats and those on the neighbouring Finbarr’s Rd are almost completely emptied, with the council tendering the demolition of two of the four Noonan’s Rd blocks.

Reversed demolition plans

However, last December, the council reversed plans to demolish the 30 flats on Fort St and Dean St, which all have the same problems as the flats on Noonan’s Rd and Finbarr’s Rd.

Noting the scale of the housing crisis, the council said it was “seeking to continue full occupancy at the Fort St and Dean St complexes, where possible”.

Brian Geaney, Cork City Council assistant chief executive, said the Fort St and Dean St flats “were not in such disrepair that would warrant demolition, so it is proposed that a substantial refurbishment/remediation scheme will be brought forward”.

Some tenants in Fort St and Dean St now feel isolated and forgotten, Mr O’Brien says, and he believes some regret not forming a residents’ committee at the same time the Noonan’s Rd and Finbarr’s Rd residents did.

“Whether it’s fair or not, there is a perception that if you go to [the media], there will be a black mark against you when it comes to repairs or rehousing, so I think having the collective strength of a residents’ association can help."

Mr O’Brien believes that housing associations should be established and supported by the council, especially for older estates. He adds that such associations are needed across the city’s social housing estates.

“People in the Togher flats are in a bad way, living with mould, cold, rats, the same problems as the people in the Noonan’s Rd flats had, and up in Desmond’s Square, the flats are a problem to renovate, there are some problems with one or two tenants with rubbish and anti-social behaviour.

“Residents’ committees would help to highlight issues for people, and I know the council can’t do everything, but it seems like there’s no initiative coming to help people, and sometimes it feels like there’s an attitude of ‘You have a roof over your head, what’s your problem?’

“Tenants’ voices need to be heard; you shouldn’t be waiting 10 years to get your home repaired and you shouldn’t have to go to the media to be heard.”

Glentrasna

Three years on, it still causes consternation in City Hall when media reports quote the 2023 claim by Thomas Gould that the council executive “doesn’t give a shit about people in social housing or working-class people”.

The Sinn Féin TD for Cork North-Central’s comment was seen as deeply unfair by many in the city council, and it was also felt that it was wrong to publish it, despite it being a statement made to a public meeting by a member of the national parliament.

Mr Gould’s remarks were made in relation to Glentrasna in The Glen, one of the city’s newer social housing estates. It consists of 95 houses, the majority of which were built between 2005 and 2010. Despite being a relatively new estate, tenants say leaks, damp, and rodents are recurring problems, and they claimed three years ago that Cork City Council had done little to address those problems.

In September 2023, the council’s then director of services met with residents after the public protest at which Mr Gould made his remarks, and several media reports highlighting their plight.

Some works were subsequently carried out in the estate, but three years on, residents remain unsatisfied.

One resident claimed “there was a lot of promises about all they were going to do for us and in the end the promises were never followed through”, a claim supported by Mr Gould.

“At the start the council did go up and they did some work in a number of houses, but after a while that petered out after it went out of the spotlight and out of the media,” he said.

Asked whether he regretted his comments three years ago about the council, Mr Gould offered a somewhat nuanced reply.

“I would actually change that to say that the Government don’t give a shit about people in social housing,” he said.

“I sit on the Oireachtas housing committee and there is a huge problem with government funding for social housing maintenance, we see it Noonan’s Rd, in Kilmore Rd in Knocknaheeny, in the council flats in Mayfield, and in Glentrasna.

“Local authorities don’t have enough funding to carry out repairs. I see it in my office every week in my clinics: We see tenants complaining about windows, mould, damp leaks, and council officials are telling they don’t have the resources.

“They’re telling me they need funding from central Government and it’s not coming in the volume that’s needed.”

Asked if the council is therefore owed an apology, he said it has a responsibility to its tenants, and — because of a lack of funding — is clearly failing in that responsibility.

Pressed as to whether he had been over-the-top in his criticism, he replied: “No, no, I believe council tenants deserve the same rights as private tenants, and we see council tenants living in conditions that no private landlord would get away with.

“I believe that if a local authority hasn’t enough money, I think it needs to come out and call out the Government,” he said.

“If council tenants are living in poor conditions, that’s the council’s responsibility, and that’s a disgrace, and it’s a disgrace that the Government knows this and are doing nothing about it.”

• This special report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.