Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and I am pleased to note a fellow Louth person will take this debate which relates to the appalling living conditions being endured by two families on a ghost estate known as Carlinn Hall in Dundalk. I will briefly explain the position of the families. They bought houses at opposite ends of the estate and out of sight of each other. This is important because it shows how isolated they are, living as they do at either end of an otherwise unoccupied estate. They informed me that they believed they were buying dream homes and put their life savings into them. The estate featured on a television programme which billed its homes as the houses of the future, with eco-friendly heating systems and every modern convenience. However, the developer went bankrupt before the estate was finished and it was taken over by the National Asset Management Agency which has since appointed receivers. By that stage, the two unfortunate families had already completed the sales and having invested considerable sums of money in their homes, they had no alternative but to move into them.

They had put all their savings into their houses and had no alternative but to go ahead and move in.

Since then both families have had and continue to have serious problems with basic utilities which, in 2012, I find very hard to believe. They have enormous problems with sewerage, heating, street lighting and the general safety because of the unfinished houses. After four years of living there, the whole affair has taken its toll on them in many different ways. Now they are in a position where the receivers, on behalf of NAMA, have said that while they sympathised with the families, they are have no responsibilities regarding the management or maintenance of the sewerage, heating or safety in the estate. I will quote from correspondence received by the families:

NAMA does not hold a charge over 4 Carlinn Hall or 26 Carlinn Court and, as such, they fall outside of the remit of the receivership and, as such, the receiver is not authorised to deal with either of the properties. While the receiver sympathises with the position of the owners of the properties, any defects affecting these properties are not the responsibility of NAMA or the receiver.

I have visited both homes on the estate and have met two very broken families, who went in there full of hope and goodwill. They are paying their mortgages and continuing to keep to their side of the bargain but they are almost at their wits' end. In one of the families there are two children aged six and four who are unable to play outside their own home because there is an open gap leading to an open, derelict site. Directly to the side of the houses, the so-called state-of-the-art, high-tech, eco-friendly wood chip burner was installed to provide heat and hot water. However, the families report that they have been unable to take a bath in over three years as the bath must be filled by a mere trickle of water. I have seen the burner and in terms of safety, it is grossly unsuitable. As a result, the heating breaks down regularly. That is not a major problem in the summer but as winter draws in, they are living in dread.

The owner of one of the houses showed me the carpet in one of his children's bedroom. It froze solid and crystals formed on its surface during the cold spell two years ago. That same owner can put his hand through a hole in the wall of the attic and reach into the unoccupied shell of the house next door. In reality, he has only a three-walled house as the wall adjoining the house next door is merely plasterboard. It is not insulated which means that all of the heat escapes into the adjoining house and the family has to rely on electric heaters during the winter. Both families have also been plagued by mice.

There is no on-street lighting which, in an unfinished estate like this, means it is very dark at night. On the afternoon that I visited, the owners reported to me that the gardaí had just left. They had been in the estate because there is constant theft going on, with people taking items from the unoccupied houses. There is also another estate directly across the road. As we all know, empty houses can lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour.

This is an enormous problem for people who paid large sums of money for these houses. The two families spent the last few years pleading for the unfinished section of the houses to be cordoned off but that was only completed after the tragic death of a young child on another unfinished estate in another part of the country. Neither house is directly connected to the sewerage system and this must addressed immediately. One of the families has to collect rainwater in order to flush out the system every few weeks. In 2012 that is totally unacceptable for people who have put their life's work into their home. Every man's home is his castle but that is certainly not the case here.

In the other home, the owner told me that he tried to plant a tree a number of years ago. He dug about six inches down, only to be met by sludge. Something must be done about this, from a health and safety point of view.

They are literally banging their heads off the wall because nothing has been done to date. I ask the Minister of State to outline what can be done for these families, who, through no fault of their own, have been left in these dreadful circumstances.