Councillor wants full-time maintenance staff for housing stock
A local councillor has said Mayo County Council needs a full-time maintenance staff member to take care of repair works in the local authority’s housing stock.
Cllr Gerry Murray said the council should be capable of employing a team to handle smaller jobs in these houses.
“We should have half a dozen maintenance men to look after locks on doors and other jobs you shouldn’t have to go to tender for,” he told a meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District.
He said the council had the financial capability for this.
“We take in €7 million in rental income and only €4 million is spent on maintenance. I recently learned the only local authority to spend its entire rental income on maintenance is Dublin City because the Dublin tenants wouldn’t stand for anything else,” he said. “The way our tenants are being treated is unacceptable.”
Cllr Patsy O’Brien said there were many cases of council tenants being asked to pay for repairs themselves.
“People are being asked to put up money to subsidise work the council should be doing. If you were [renting] a private house, you’d be looked after,” he said.
However, Cllr Michael Burke said he did not agree that the council should be involved in making small repairs. Matters costing €250 or less should be the responsibility of the tenant but they should be permitted to get local tradespeople out to make repairs.
However, Cllr O’Brien said he knew of a tenant whose stove stopped working a few months ago and it is costing them €105 per week to heat their home.
“That is discriminatory,” he added.
Cllr Burke agreed the council should handle larger jobs and Cllr Murray added tenants should have some latitude to claim back money they spend themselves.
Head of the district Padraig Flanagan said there is a system in place for tenants to claim rent credit on smaller jobs they pay for themselves. He said he would look into the specifics of the case brought up by Cllr O’Brien.
- Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
