"I wonder has anyone else in this room lay in bed at night and seen a car blown up in your estate? was a question that Fine Gael Cllr Donna Sheridan posed at a special meeting of Mayo County Council this week where the issue of a policy to deal with anti-social behaviour was being discussed.
Cllr Sheridan went on to recall some of her own past experiences of anti-social behaviour asking "How many of you have been terrorised, literally terrorised where you live?"
"Enough is enough. I know a case going on years, I have had friends come and visit me and their children be threatened to be killed in my front garden. When do we say enough is enough, enough red tape. This is HAP and RAS tenants and the landlords are living abroad, the people are being literally terrorised, we have all got the emails," she said.
She went on to comment on the process for people to lodge a complaint saying: "A five page document and you must complain via the form and it must not be an anonymous complaint. People are living in terror do you not realise. You see fighting roaring, shouting and you become immune to it, people come and visit and they say Jesus the noise and you say you're used to that and it is not that bad. People should not have to live like that, they really shouldn't I am asking you to look at the policy again. People are at their wits end, at least with pyrite there might be an end in sight but this there is no end it just continues and continues for years."
She added the people of this county are fed up of this.
"There are so many good HAP and RAS tenants, but when they are not they need to be removed and removed quickly.
Cllr Neil Cruise called for 'a three strikes and you're out' policy for those causing issues, saying that he felt the council policy was a light touch approach that was stuck in red tape.
"It should be simple, three strikes and you're out, if you are acting the maggot you get a warning and second one and then on the third you are on your bike."
Mayo County Council's Housing Strategic Policy Committee is currently in the process of drawing up a new policy to deal with the issues.
