Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

Recently, I visited the Balgaddy estate with my colleague, Eoin Ó Broin, where I met residents and had a tour of the general area. Balgaddy estate is a 400 unit social housing estate comprising three developments, namely, Meile An Rí, Buirg An Rí and Tor An Rí. It was built between 2004 and 2007 on the border of Lucan and Clondalkin. The design of the estate won awards from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 2004. It was to be a model urban village with community facilities, employment opportunities and social and affordable housing. Today, for many of its residents Balgaddy is a nightmare.

From the very start, residents complained of damp, structural cracks inside and outside the houses, faulty heating systems and leaks from badly constructed roofs. The promised community facilities were never provided and units held over for this purpose remain vacant. So much for the social dividend that was promised. To date, the only facility provided is a children's play area which was completed recently, seven years after the residents moved in.

From the very beginning, Balgaddy residents raised their concerns with South Dublin County Council. When no adequate response from the council was forthcoming they formed the Balgaddy Working Together group in an attempt to force the council to meet its obligations. Seven years later, the residents are angry and frustrated at the false promises and neglect of the council, and rightly so.

In response to the inaction of the council, the group in conjunction with the Clondalkin Lucan area partnership commissioned independent engineers to carry out a survey of 40 properties in the estate. The report by Buckeridge Forristal Partnership Consulting Engineers was published in June and found significant damp and mould in many of the homes caused by roof leaks, faulty heating and plumbing and defective windows. The report recommended details of action on each of the issues concerned. The extent of the problems confirm without any doubt that these issues are structural and in need of a systematic and proactive response.

While primary responsibility for resolving the problems in Balgaddy rests with South Dublin County Council, the scale of the problem requires the involvement of the Minister of State and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Residents in Balgaddy have a right to live in decent and comfortable homes. The council has a legal responsibility to ensure its tenants live in adequate housing. Where a local authority is failing in this regard the Department has an obligation to intervene. Health and safety factors alone dictate that the Minister of State's intervention is necessary. Will he outline to the House today what he knows about the problems in Balgaddy and what action he and the Department can take to address the very real problems which blight the lives of hundreds of families in Balgaddy?

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