Council estate rife with mould and damp
Up to 400 local authority houses in west Dublin, which were built between four and seven years ago and won architectural design awards, now have problems with damp, mould, leaks, cracks, crumbling plaster, electrical faults and sewage. South Dublin County Council is in “contractual dispute” with builders Gama Construction Ireland, for “a serious contribution” towards the cost of resolving maintenance issues with tenants in the Balgaddy area about “repairs . . . including window sashes, roof flashings and external plaster cracks”.
A number of tenants from Buirg an Rí, Meile an Rí and Tor and Rí estates have been rehoused while a firm of solicitors is holding a public meeting in the area tomorrow night to advise people on how to “enforce [their] rights as tenants” against the council.
Solicitor Eugene Smartt said he had acted on behalf of a number of residents in the area and the council had “either settled with my clients, or rehoused them”.
“This is a public information meeting for tenants. I think they must have the patience of saints to have put up with these living conditions for so long”.
In one home seen by The Irish Times during a visit to the area last week, there were mushrooms the size of fists growing in a bathroom, while in the adjacent bedroom dark-green and black mould growing a metre up the wall had forced the householder to move his bed into the kitchen.
