The maintenance of city council housing stock is of great concern to tenants of ‘the biggest landlord’ in the city, according to Green Party councillor Martina O’Connor.
Cllr O’Connor said that she was reminded of the scale of the concern when she canvassed for her colleague Pauline O’Reilly in the recent General Election.
“The biggest single issue I came across when canvassing for the recent General Election was Galway City Council housing maintenance.
“Galway City Council are the biggest landlord in the City and we are failing to provide prompt maintenance of property.
“The people who are renting houses from city council wait, very patiently, in fact those waiting are very quick to stress the maintenance crews are excellent but under resourced .
The tenants Typically women in particular, tell me of waiting for heating stoves, back doors, damaged ceilings and gutters to be repaired.
Cllr O’Connor said that when house maintenance is not carried out in a timely manner, residents suffer and houses deteriorate and it is much more costly to bring them back up to standard at a later time.
“The budget and staffing are inadequate for the current stock of houses, we have hundreds of new houses coming on line, thankfully, but let us not abandon the people we already have renting from us,” she added.
