Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Social housing repair and maintenance is probably the second most common issue I hear about in my constituency office next to those seeking assistance and advice in obtaining a local authority house in the first place. Many of the people who come in bring in photographs or send me videos or invite me out to their houses to see the conditions they are living in, which are absolutely dreadful. The houses are damp, there is mould on the walls and on the ceilings, there are holes in the walls and in the ceilings, there are single-glazed windows, there are draughts around the doors and there are holes in the roofs; it is dreadful. People are spending money they can ill afford to try to heat these homes and they are fighting a losing battle. They are buying products to clean off the mould and regularly replacing bedding and sometimes clothes because they are destroyed by mould.

There is also a significant cost to the health of the people living in these homes. I hear from parents whose children are constantly off school because they get colds or develop asthma or other respiratory conditions. Older people end up requiring hospital care because of the conditions they are living in.

Housing policy has to take greater consideration of the standard and quality of both new and existing homes. We concentrate a lot on the requirement for new homes, and that is absolutely important, but our existing housing stock has to be brought up to a proper standard. In 2017, Ireland was found to be in breach of the European Social Charter because of the substandard condition of many of our social houses. Local authority budgets were slashed during the economic crash and recruitment embargoes were introduced such that many local authorities are operating with a skeleton crew as their maintenance staff. Those budgets have not been restored. What I hear from the local authorities is that they are constantly trying to source electricians, plumbers and construction workers to do the vital work on their housing stock and they are competing with the private sector because those workers are also doing work in the private sector and it is impossible to get their work done in a timely fashion. Houses that are vacated are left sitting for months and sometimes years because they cannot get the workers to do the work that is required to reallocate those homes.

Successive alternative budgets by Sinn Féin have included measures aimed at addressing poor-quality housing and ensuring that new housing meets key standards. That needs to be taken into account by the Government. As well as building more homes, we need to bring our existing stock up to a proper standard. Directing scarce labour resources to the coldest homes is the best use of public money we can see. It is socially equitable and will show the best return in public investment in achieving climate targets.

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