Bríd Smith Exposes Decades of Neglect at Oliver Bond Flats

Deputy Smith, I raise this issue because the House and the country will be aware that it made headline news yesterday when a report was published about the conditions that residents live in Oliver Bond and I want to congratulate those behind the report and indeed the residents and campaigners who have been working on this for years now. This campaign started about 10 years ago, sorry, the campaign and the promise of regeneration started about 10 years ago but now we are told that the regeneration promise has been put on hold for four years and I don't think this is just an issue for the local authority, the state bears responsibility for the conditions that these people live in and the question is not just about the speed of the proposed regeneration programme but it highlights a systemic state neglect and disregard of all of our bond tenants and other bond tenants and others beyond Balgadi, Pearce House, Bernard Curtis House and Bluebell and indeed hundreds of council homes come to mind. I want us to look at some of the conditions, although it was in the media today and yesterday, I think it is worth going over some of the conditions that people live in. One woman I spoke to today talked about a neighbour who is a 27-year-old mother of four with kids from six years of age down to babies and she is pregnant again. She has constantly sewage coming up through her shower onto her bathroom floor. Most of the neighbours will complain about sinks being blocked and from last March until now there have been several complaints about blocked sinks that have not been addressed by the council. Eleven years after a fire in her home, one resident, the mother of this woman I know down there, was waiting for her windows to be replaced. While the wind and the rain howled through her windows, she had to wait 11 years. Another neighbour waited three years for a hall door to be replaced. A 77-year-old woman is still waiting for broken latches to be fixed on the windows. This should bite your interest, Minister, being a Green Party TD. These people are absolutely crucified trying to pay heating bills because the wind howls through their properties. Broken latches, pipes bursting on the kitchen, sewage outside the flats. Most of them would say that washing machines that they purchased last only three to four years because of the blockages that wreck the machinery. What is happening here is that a report and a promise of regeneration has been put back on hold for four years. It is not just because we are told that these 1936 buildings, built by Herbert Simms and they are very beautiful to look at, have preservation orders. That is all true, but that does not explain how the tenants have been treated for decades and how the issues of mould, damp sewage, etc. continue. These tenants still have no legally enforceable mechanism to vindicate their rights. Just one comment. We often hear in this House, we have heard it repeatedly from the Tarnish but also from other deputies and in the mainstream media, that people should not expect the right to free housing. That free housing says a lot about the deep class bias nature towards public and social housing in this country. They are tenants and they pay 15% of their total income in their family home on their rent. I think this is very ignorant and shows that there are vested interests in this society who see property as a way of generating wealth rather than as a way of housing families. I am asking here today that the Government make a priority of Oliver Bond flats and the regeneration of it. Do not just put everybody out of the sticks and expect hardly any of them to come back. There is a block of apartments in Bridgefoot Street that they were promised they would be temporarily rehoused while block by block Oliver Bond will be regenerated. That promise has now been taken from under them as well when the Council told them no other tenants will be going into that block. These are huge issues and the Government have to intervene now. Thank you Deputy Smith. Minister Noonan. I want to thank Deputy Smith for raising this issue. I did not see the report but I am shocked at what I have been hearing. Certainly these are unacceptable conditions for people to be living in. People should expect the very least basic minimum standard, decent standard of living and decent standard of quality housing in 21st century Ireland. I would agree with the Deputy in that regard. Our Department is committed to ensuring that tenants and social housing are provided with adequate housing that meets the standards most recently laid down in the housing standards for rented houses regulations of 2019. Our Department is actively engaging with the local authority sector to promote the prevention of maintenance of local authority housing stock and provide significant funding for stock improvement works. In addition to funding provided by the local authorities themselves in respect of their own housing stock, our Department provides funding across a number of programs to support the local authority work to maintain and improve social housing stock. In all cases it is the local authorities that identify priorities. The continued work of local authorities in undertaking stock condition surveys, their responsive and planned maintenance programs, as well as important programs such as energy retrofitting and voids programs, seek to support the local authority maintenance program. Specifically with regard to the Oliver Bond House, built in 1936 by Herbert Simms and one of the oldest largest flat complexes in Dublin City, with 397 units and approximately 1,200 residents. The upkeep, refurbishment and regeneration of this social housing complex is a matter in the first instance for the local authority. However, it is my understanding that DCC is actively engaged with the residents and are working on a number of short-term projects to improve the outdoor common areas, as well as the long-term proposals for the retrofitting and refurbishment of the flats at Oliver Bond House. Dublin City Council are working on proposals and designs for two projects that will see the total refurbishment of all 397 flats at Oliver Bond House in two phases, to bring them up to modern standards, including size and energy efficiency. Our department looks forward to receiving these submissions for funding consideration from Dublin City Council, and will work with them to ascertain the appropriate funding mechanisms for these projects, and you speak of the other projects in relation to Pearce House and Bluebell as well. In addition, the normal voids programs funding Minister O'Brien announced recently, funding to bring flats that are vacant in older flat complexes will include Oliver Bond House to bring them back into stock. Thank you. Minister O'Brien and Deputy Smith. Minister, I think it is very disappointing that you come to address this issue and have not read the report, but you only hear the testimonies that I have given you here. I am very, very disappointed. Again, I would like to echo what the Tarnished have said in his last two criticisms of responses from ministers being inadequate, or from those who advise you. Let me just cast your mind back to a European Committee on Social Rights that said that Ireland was in breach of the European Social Charter. This was a class action taken by communities across the country in relation to local authority accommodation. It ruled that Ireland breached Article 16 of the Charter, that the family as a fundamental unit of society has the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection to ensure its full development. The provision of family housing is to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for not an insignificant number of families. This ruling was made, as I say, after a collective action was taken to the European Court, but it has never been acted on by the State. It has never been put into legislation. It has never been ruled upon, but it is about local authority tenants and their rights. They do not have recourse to the, you may not be aware of this either, they do not have recourse to the Residential Tennessees Board. They are a significant cohort of tenants in this country who are completely excluded from any independent complaints process. So there are two things I am asking you here tonight. One is to really use every power you have and the Department's power to hurry up the question of the regeneration of Oliver Bond. And that is the first and most important thing I am asking you. And the other is to speed up legislation to address your breach of the European Charter on the Rights of Tenants. Local authority tenants, no matter where they are in the country, have no independent body to go to to make complaints. And it is a bit like somebody who feels they have suffered a grave of injustice going to GSOC and having the Gardaí investigate in Gardaí. Local authorities do not investigate their own complaints properly. Evidence Oliver Bond, evidence Bernard Courtershouse, evidence Balgadi. We can go on and name them, but the dogs on the street know that this is true. They live in the calling conditions. This is the 21st century. Minister Noonan. First of all, Deputy, I apologise for not having read the report. I received this question in this afternoon and it was at meetings all afternoon. So I do apologise for that, but I will read the report. And secondly, I give you my commitment that I will work within our department and with Minister O'Brien to try and advance the regeneration of Oliver Bond House. I will give you my commitment on that and try to expedite that with Dublin City Council. And in relation to the legislation on the EU Charter on the rights of tenants, again, I will get a response on that to you as well, Deputy. I think it is really important that we try and work together to try and achieve this. Again, I am appalled at what I have heard here this evening. It really is unacceptable that people have to live like that in this day and age. So I give you my commitment that we will work to try and resolve it. Thank you. Thank you so much.