Children living in defective block social houses in Donegal attending hospital due to effects of mould
Children in social homes in Donegal impacted by defective blocks have had to attend hospital due to the effects of mould, a meeting has heard.
The Defective Concrete Block Committee met in Lifford on Tuesday, and during the meeting it was outlined how a remediation scheme for impacted social homes is not yet in place, 11 years after it was first mooted.
Councillor Gerry McMonagle told how Donegal County Council tenants are living in homes that are in a ‘horrendous condition and getting progressively worse’.
"I’m looking at emails with photographs of different home, showing plaster off the walls, cracks inside and mould up the walls and across the ceilings.”
He added: “As we know, the longer a house deteriorates, the more horrendous conditions there are for families. I know of children who are attending hospital because of the mould and the effects of it. Their siblings and parents are also attending doctors, particularly people with asthma.”
Colr McMonagle said the council ‘cannot stand by any longer’ and told how the matter of a remediation scheme for tenants in social houses, ‘in tandem with the private remediation scheme,’ has been raised since 2014.
“There’s no reason a remediation scheme for social housing should not be in place. It should have been in place years ago. The legislation is there and I don’t know what words you can use to describe a government that sits back and lets residents live in those conditions. It is third world and a danger to their health and we’ve nowhere to put them.
"We need to move these families out of the conditions they’re living in. The whole mental stress on parents who are trying to keep their children safe is going through the roof.”
Colr Albert Doherty outlined how council delegations have met with the department over many years and were told a scheme was ‘pending’.
However, he added, ‘we are sitting in October 2025 and there is no change’.
Colr Doherty said that a ‘different approach or mechanism of communication is required, because it isn’t fair on the council, councillors and most certainly not fair on our tenants, who have to wait for some good news in relation to the scheme.”
Colr Declan Meehan described how tenants are ‘living in unsafe, damp and deteriorating homes and it has been going on for far too long’.
"They are having to pay for the privilege of living in these squalid conditions. People are living with mould and are having to get rid of bedding, clothes and furniture on the regular and no progress is being made.’
"The word ‘imminent’ has been used far too often and nothing has been delivered.”
He added: “What do we need to do to push this forward? We’ve written to the Minister on a number of occasions. We’re getting absolutely nowhere and we have to look at alternatives.”
“It’s a disgrace. Every single day, we are being contacted by our tenants, who are crying out for help and support which children’s health is effected. They are also worrying about their own safety, especially in adverse weather conditions.”
Colr Joy Beard highlighted how, that while they have been waiting for an ‘imminent’ scheme, houses have ‘been visibly deteriorating, with damp and mould spreading through the homes.’
"Residents are getting sick and their safety is compromised.
"Even if the scheme is announced tomorrow, it would be six months before work could commence. We have no place to locate them and that’s a massive worry. Health and safety has to be paramount.”
Colr Beard disclosed that she had been contacted by a woman who had ‘12 bin loads of mouldy clothes to wash’.
"She opens her wardrobe every morning and there’s more mould. This is no way for people to live.”
Colr Michael Boyle said that modular homes had been highlighted to the department ‘for a number of years, but it seems like people in local government are not being listened to.”
"The message isn’t going in. For us people sitting in this committee, representing homeowners in Donegal, we’re going to have to do something different, because they are not listening.”
Colr Martin McDermott said it felt as if they were ‘going around in circles’ and it has ‘come to a point where Donegal County Council and the executive have to put their foot down’.
“I think the Chief Executive and the Director of Housing have to stand up and say enough is enough. I think until that happens we are going to be going around in circles.
"These are our houses. They are under the control of Donegal County Council and I think the time has come where were have to say: ‘Stop, we’re not accepting this anymore’ and give them a timeline, whether it’s a month or six weeks, to give us a scheme. But, I think it has to come from the top down in the council.
"If there is a reason, behind the scenes, that we don’t know, as to why it has taken so long, then put that on the table. But we cannot keep going around in circles. It’s time the council came out and said ‘enough is enough’ and until that happens, we can say whatever we like in this meeting, as councillors, but we won’t be listened to.”
Colr Ali Farren said he did not believe the civil servants in the housing department ‘fully understand the enormity of this problem here’.
He told how, in his parish a family had to move out of a council SI (specific instance) house as it ‘was not fit to be lived in’.
"Other families in other SI houses are afraid to complain in case they’re moved out because it’s part of their family farm’.
Donal Walker, Senior Engineer, said the council has been carrying out ‘essential immediate repair of houses in Inishowen’, the cost of which they haven’t been able to recoup from the department and this, in turn, does impact on cash flow.
He added, however, that the council is ‘continuing to do that, because as a landlord, there’s a responsibility that significant, immediate repairs are taken’.
He told how when the council ‘goes to the department looking for anything, they will revert us back to the scheme.’
Mr Walker said the council is interacting with the department on a monthly basis and have been informed that the remediation scheme for social homes is still with the minister. He added that the council aims to be ‘in a state of readiness’ for if, or when, a scheme is confirmed, but staff have also had to be redeployed to assist in other areas.
He added how the council is ‘open to whatever approach we can’ to get the scheme 'over the line’.