Council accused of double standards on rental sector

Galway County Council officials have been summoned to explain their management of tenants and estates in the Loughrea Municipal District amid complaints they were holding private landlords and homeowners to a much higher standard.

At this month’s area meeting for councillors, Portumna Councillor Ivan Canning (FF) demanded to know why Galway County Council was collecting rubbish from a local authority estate in Killimor when they did not run a waste collection service.

He had previously voiced concerns about the estate, where he claimed dead dogs had been dumped and rubbish was being thrown over the wall to the local school.

Administrative officer in the environment unit of Galway County Council Padraig Carroll said he had been told the caretaker of the estate had taken it upon himself to remove rubbish from the green area of the estate, which had been beset with dumping and antisocial behaviour issues.

He said one of the tenants did have a contract with a waste disposal company while two of them did not.

Cllr Canning said he had passed the estate last week and had spotted several bags of rubbish dumped at one of the house’s gates waiting to be collected.

“If I do that I’ll get a fine. I have people calling me about why the rules are different in this case. Why should I do it [pay for waste collection] and somebody else can come along and do what they like? They’re tenants with Galway County Council – they have to tow the line.”

Cllr Jimmy McClearn (FG) said he knew that the dog warden had visited some of the houses on multiple occasions and removed dogs only for the tenants to bring in more dogs immediately afterwards.

“Household waste is being thrown over the school fence while they’re standing in the playground,” he exclaimed.

Cllr Mogie Maher (FG) said there was a similar situation in a Council estate on Bride Street in Gort.

“They’ve caravans outside the houses, horses inside the houses and we’re turning a blind eye to this. We’ve estates in Loughrea town where the grass is as high as the table – the grass wasn’t cut since February or March. I want housing reps to come here and report on the issues at the next meeting.

A local authority tenant in St Lawrence’s Field had a skip outside the house in breach of his contract which went on fire and caused thousands of euro of damage to the house.

“The housing unit has almost collapsed in its function. Michael Owens [director of service for housing] is one of the best civil servants but he needs staff.”

Cllr McClearn complained that there seemed to be two different sets of rules for the private sector landlord.

“For houses let under the HAP scheme, Galway County Council will demand – and rightly demand – the highest spec of property. I had a tenant of Galway County Council where the three-lock system on their door was broken after ten years and he was told it was their own responsibility. Tenants are being told to service their boilers.

“But if the tenant is on the HAP scheme, everything’s the responsibility of the landlord. I have no difficulty demanding high standards of landlords but we don’t demand them of ourselves.”

Director of Services for Infrastructure and Operations, Jim Cullen, said he would request senior housing officials to attend next month’s meeting to answer queries from councillors.