More Council staff needed for housing maintenance

At the most recent meeting of the Manorhamilton Municipal District Cllr Padraig Fallon said that Leitrim County Council needs to increase the amount of staff it has in the housing section of the local authority.
Cllr Felim Gurn also asked if there are enough staff to carry out repairs on council owned tenant housing saying that “frustrated tenants are ringing elected representatives to get repairs done and it is taking too long to get the works complete.”
They were advised by the Mary Quinn, Director of Services, Housing, Corporate Services, Community and Cultural Services that there are “currently two housing work crews available to undertake routine housing maintenance in the Manorhamilton area and there are no immediate plans to increase housing staff numbers. Each crew currently consists of a craftsperson and a general operative.”
The response continued that these “in-house crews are supplemented by external contractors for specialist works such as electrical and plumbing repairs and building works when they are required.”
She continued, “The recent increase in Notice To Quit being served on HAP tenants and the risk of homelessness has resulted in the housing crews working to turn around all casual vacancies as quickly as possible so as to have these houses available for tenanting and help prevent homeless presentations.”
Cllr Fallon acknowledged that there are two teams in north Leitrim who do “fantastic work” but said that "issues will arise when those staff go on holiday or have to take time off for any other reason.”
He said, however, that it was “practically impossible at this stage now to get contractors to do work, certainly within a six month period.”
He said, “I do think we need more outdoor staff and another team here, I would suggest, within this municipal district.”
He added that while previously the Council could rely on contractors he felt that now “those resources are just not there anymore - not to the extent they were.”
Cllr Gurn said he was receiving calls from council tenants and said that he felt “we definitely need more outdoor staff,” for example, “another tradesperson or craftsperson to mirror the two teams.”
Cllr Mary Bohan and Councillor Justin Warnock also supported the motion.
Ms Quinn said that “ultimately it is a question of resources and the budget available” adding the council has a housing maintenance budget.
“We try to make that work as best we can in terms of undertaking maintenance requests.”
She said that when it comes to housing maintenance “some of it is tenant responsibility” and “sometimes there are expectations that it is back on the council to deal with every query that comes in the door.”
However, she stressed that the council “will keep the matter under review.”
Cllr Fallon said that he appreciated that there were budget constraints however he stressed that he felt there has been a lack of staff in the housing department for “a number of years.”