Sallynoggin tenants to protest over “slum conditions” 

Tenants from Sallynoggin and surrounding areas will hold a protest next Monday at the offices of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

The protest is about the conditions and maintenance of homes rented from the council which residents say are dangerous and not fit for habitation.

Council tenants in Sallynoggin have been raising concerns about the standards and maintenance of homes in their estate for many years.

Newspaper records show that, throughout the 1960s and 1970s the Sallynoggin Tenants Association repeatedly raised issues such as rat infestations, extreme delays with repairs and the lack of facilities for children in the area.

In the early 2000s some of the maisonette flats in Sallynoggin were demolished and replaced with new local authority housing, but there has been no progress since then with upgrading or replacing the remaining approximately 60-70 units.

Last year it was reported that the HSE wrote to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council expressing their concerns about mould and damp, anti-social behaviour, fire safety and rat infestations.

The protest next Monday is being organised by the Community Action Tenants Union.

Its aims are to highlight the issues faced by residents in Sallynoggin and put pressure on the council to take action.

The residents are demanding that the council take urgent action to rehouse tenants in the maisonette flats and make progress with plans for redevelopment, and that it address the maintenance issues faced by tenants in council houses in the area through a comprehensive retrofit programme.

According to Katie Byrne, who lives in one of the maisonette flats in Sallynoggin: “I need to be rehoused because the mould and dampness in my home is horrific and it’s affecting my children’s health.

“We’ve been left living in slum conditions and it’s not acceptable.

“We need as many people as possible to turn out for the protest on Monday to show the council that we won’t accept it anymore.”

An engineer’s report secured by Ms Byrne states that, in the author’s opinion, she “is living in unacceptable conditions” and that “this is through no fault of her own but the way the property was provided to her and maintained by the local authority”.

It continues to claim that Dún Laoghaire Rathdown is in breach of legal standards regarding the standard and maintenance of her home.

According to Fiadh Tubridy, a member of the Community Action Tenants Union in Dún Laoghaire: “Recently we’ve seen council tenants throughout Dublin coming together to protest over the atrocious housing conditions in many estates and in many cases they’ve already succeeded in winning major improvements.

“We plan to continue our campaign until both Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and central government take notice and take action to address the issues tenants are facing in this area.”

The protest will take place next Monday, July 7, at 3.45pm outside the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council offices on Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire.