‘Up to 12 people’ living in some houses in city estate says Limerick TD

AS MANY as 12 people are living under the same roof in some homes in a city estate in what a TD has dubbed “mass overcrowding”.

Sinn Fein’s Maurice Quinlivan, who was addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, said “we still need to deliver a lot more houses” in Southill.

"There is mass overcrowding in a number of houses which still have 10 or 12 people living in them. The delivery of homes is not up to speed with what we need to do there,” he said.

Council director general Dr Pat Daly, who was present at the committee meeting, said there has been a “quantum leap” from when Limerick Regeneration began in 2007 to now.

He believes the development of the Colbert Quarter – and its many houses – adjacent to Southill, will “give a different impetus in a number of years” to the southside of the city.

At the committee, Mr Quinlivan claimed more than 1,200 homes had been demolished across Southill, Moyross, Ballinacurra Weston and St Mary’s Park as part of Regeneration.

"We did not deliver back anywhere near the scale of that,” he added.

Mr Quinlivan said many council tenants were now in arrears following the removal of rent caps in the city's Regeneration estates.

He said he knew of people living without heating because they owed money to the local authority.

"The problem is people end up in arrears through no fault of their own and cannot get housing maintenance done, which has left people in critical situations without heating,” Mr Quinlivan told the committee.

Mr Daly rejected the suggestion that rent arrears should prevent council tenants from receiving necessary maintenance.

“If people have difficulty because of the rental review we did on payments, we are very gentle and encouraging and can do payment plans around that. We would never let that be an issue,” he said.

“In any case like that, we have been very careful in trying to protect them as best we can, but if there are cases, I am very happy to speak to the deputy after the session. In general, we would not let a payment process or a debt situation interfere with a client’s home.”

Mr Quinlivan said: “The four Regeneration areas are probably in the top 10 most deprived areas in the whole State, probably even in the top five. In Regeneration estates, rents were capped, but that cap has now gone and I believe this has contributed to not addressing the issue of social exclusion. Who came up with it?”

Mr Daly said it would have been led by council but added: "Again, it is under constant review, and it is something we are going to have to go back and look at."

Speaking about the Regeneration communities of St Mary’s Park and Ballinacurra Weston, Mr Quinlivan said: “People in these areas do not feel safe. They 100% do not feel safe”.

"We have a gang war going on in Ballinacurra Weston. There is also an outbreak of crack cocaine across the city which has wrecked communities,” the TD said.

Mr Daly said: “What is clear to us after many years working in Regeneration is that one size does not fit all. How progress can be delivered is different in each Regeneration area and it is also different in different parts of that area.” In five to 10 years, he said, he doesn't want to be talking about “Regeneration areas.”

"We would prefer if these were just great locations that are expanding and growing,” he added during the course of the Oireachtas committee.