Richard Boyd Barrett: Condemns 'Deplorable' New Social Housing
Richard Boyd Barrett addressed the Dáil about dangerous conditions in newly completed social housing at the San Germain apartment development in Ballybrac village, urging the minister to intervene. He said tenants face mould, damp, electrical hazards and inadequate fire safety and called on the state to take responsibility.
The San Germain apartment in Ballybrac village is managed by a co-op housing AHB and was built by Cavco. Mr Boyd Barrett said about 20 or 30 households waited many years for allocation from the council list before moving into the new units.
He described widespread defects across the development - mould in most apartments, black mould, damp, maggots eating wet plaster, fizzing sockets and wires and a lack of proper fire safety. He said the building has effectively become a building site again without an independent survey and re-snagging to establish what went wrong.
Some residents are being moved out while others have not been told what will happen next, he reported. He said engagement between tenants and the co-op housing has taken place but that conditions remain unbearable for many families and children living there.
He asked the minister to step in and to engage with Dun Laoghaire Ratdown and the department of housing, arguing the state must accept responsibility because allocations were made from the council list. He urged a proper independent inspection and remedial work.
Mr Boyd Barrett broadened his remarks to say the government misled the public during the election about house building numbers, noting "the commission says we need twice that." He warned that the programme for government proposes only a marginal increase in social and affordable housing, highlighted problems with eligibility thresholds that leave people without support, and condemned no-fault evictions as driving people into homelessness.
San Germain apartment development
The San Germain apartment in Ballybrac village is managed by a co-op housing AHB and was built by Cavco. Mr Boyd Barrett said about 20 or 30 households waited many years for allocation from the council list before moving into the new units.
Alleged building defects and safety concerns
He described widespread defects across the development - mould in most apartments, black mould, damp, maggots eating wet plaster, fizzing sockets and wires and a lack of proper fire safety. He said the building has effectively become a building site again without an independent survey and re-snagging to establish what went wrong.
Tenant treatment and relocations
Some residents are being moved out while others have not been told what will happen next, he reported. He said engagement between tenants and the co-op housing has taken place but that conditions remain unbearable for many families and children living there.
Calls for ministerial and council action
He asked the minister to step in and to engage with Dun Laoghaire Ratdown and the department of housing, arguing the state must accept responsibility because allocations were made from the council list. He urged a proper independent inspection and remedial work.
Wider housing policy criticisms
Mr Boyd Barrett broadened his remarks to say the government misled the public during the election about house building numbers, noting "the commission says we need twice that." He warned that the programme for government proposes only a marginal increase in social and affordable housing, highlighted problems with eligibility thresholds that leave people without support, and condemned no-fault evictions as driving people into homelessness.
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Transcript
We've been asking for this debate for eight or nine months. I've got four minutes. I'm going to try and make a few points about the generality of the housing crisis and the failure of the government to address it. But I have no choice and the little time available to me to raise a specific issue with the minister which I hope will take on board, which is the San Germain apartment in Ballybrac village, which is social housing managed by co-op housing, AHB. And like most people who get allocated a social house, the people as a community of about 20 or 30 households waiting many, many years to get their social home, delighted that finally, after all that long wait, they get them, only to discover that these newly completed apartments are in an absolutely dire state. And I've raised this before with co-op housing. There has been some engagement between the tenants and co-op housing over the deplorable state of these apartments that were built by a builder called Cavco. But the situation is continuing to be unbearable for the tenants. And I'm asking the minister to step into it because the point about it is, even though it's an AHB, as the tenants asked me to point out, they're allocated from the council list. And therefore the government, the department of housing and the council should take responsibility for what's going on. And it is absolutely deplorable. Okay, they were describing to me today, and I went down and saw some of it myself, in new apartments, mould in most, if not all, of the apartments, black mould, damp, maggots eating off the wet plaster in the apartments, fizzing sockets and wires, lack of proper fire safety in this development. And the efforts, without any proper, independent survey of what's wrong, but it's really, really bad. And it's across the entire development, no independent survey and re-snagging of the building to find out what the hell went on. Some residents we hear now are being moved out, other residents not being told what's actually going to happen. The place has turned into a building site again, but it is absolutely appalling. Now I'm asking the minister to look into this, to talk to Dun Laoghaire Ratdown and get to the bottom of it, but these people have waited all these years, families, children and so on, are in an appalling situation. This shouldn't happen in social housing that is funded by and allocated by the state. And indeed, that is a wider problem I've raised recently, you may have seen it, about council older, much older council properties in Sally Noggin, where residents are living again with mould, horrendous conditions, their children's health being affected by it, and they're still being forced to live in these properties. On the generality, I just want to say this. The government deceived the public during the election about the amount of houses that have been built. Even what they did say they were building, but didn't really build, the commission says we need twice that. If we need twice what the government is delivering, we need twice as much social and affordable housing. That's not what's in the programme for government, you're only proposing a very marginal increase in the amount of social and affordable, no mention of affordable at all. And also there's a huge problem in terms of people going over the thresholds for social housing, then being eligible for no support whatsoever. These things need to be addressed and you have to stop the flow of people into homelessness through no-fault evictions. It's an absolute scandal.