Posted by 
Katie O’Donovan
Yesterday at 11:20
Anti-social behaviour in housing estates is becoming a growing concern in Tipperary, with councillors raising issues from drug use to rubbish dumping at this month’s county council meeting.
At the September meeting of Tipperary County Council, Sinn Féin councillor for Carrick-on-Suir David Dunne hit out at the increases in anti-social behaviour in council housing estates across Tipperary, saying that it was having a knock-on effect on housing more generally.
“It’s only a tiny minority of people who are doing it, but it’s having a knock-on effect on housing, because what’s happening now is people are looking for transfers, and our transfer list is growing because people want to get out,” Cllr Dunne said.
“People feel they have no option but to leave because the person is causing so much trouble,” he added.
Drug taking and dealing from council estates cannot be tolerated, the Sinn Féin councillor said, pointing to a recent garda raid on a house in Carrick-on-Suir.
“In a semi-private estate where I live, there was a raid on a house and they broke in the door. The council fixed that door previously, put a new door in, and now that door is in bits, so is there any way we can speed up the process of getting people out of these homes?” he asked.
“It’s time we have to get tough, and we have to take into consideration that people are living next door”.
Clonnmel councillor John Fitzgerald agreed with Cllr Dunne, saying that it was an issue in his area too, and questioned what could be done about a council tenant who refuses to pay for bin collections and lets rubbish pile up in their back garden.
“In relation to a neighbour who is not meeting their obligations at all in relation to a build up of rubbish in their back yard, where vermin and all kinds of other risks are now becoming apparent, who do you ring and what is likely to be the outcome?
“Because I do know in relation to private properties obligations have to be met, and you have the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) … the council in this situation are the landlord, so when a neighbour just sits on their hands to the extent of not removing rubbish from their back garden, and not engage with a collector to come and collect it, what in god’s name are we as councillors to tell neighbours?” Cllr Fitzgerald said.
Labour councillor Michael “Chicken” Brennan said that with less gardaí around the county, people are afraid to speak up about anti-social behaviour in their estates.
“Anti-social behaviour has come to the fore in Fethard, Killenaule, and Mullinahone, and the common thing that I noticed is that there’s no guards in those areas, and people are afraid to speak up now, and say what’s going on,” Cllr Brennan said.
“It’s only two years ago since we had an incident where a man did speak up through all of this and had a few words with people who were outside the shop in Fethard and he ended up getting a box into the jaw, and that was never reported because he was told not to report it,” he said.
Cashel councillor Liam Browne said that an estate in Cashel has been “destroyed” by people who engage in anti-social behaviour, with gardaí calling to the estate up to seven times a day.
“In the estate I grew up in, it has been absolutely destroyed by people by one family. It’s a 50-year-old estate, the majority of the residents now are in their 70s and 80s, and it’s been absolutely destroyed by a decision by Tipperary County Council to house a family, who from day one had gardaí in and out of that estate, at one stage up to seven times in a day in and out of that estate,” Cllr Browne hit out.
“We have to do something about it once and for all, because it keeps coming up, I do think there has to be a change with the tenancy agreement,” he said.
In response, Jonathan Cooney, Tipperary County Council’s director of services for housing said that the majority of the council’s tenants never have any dealings with the council, and that anti-social behaviour in estates is perpetrated by a very small minority of people.
“It’s very important to say that we never hear from most of our tenants, most of our tenants never have problems, and it’s very important that that be acknowledged,” Mr Cooney said.
The local authority’s anti-social behaviour policy dictates what happens in incidents of anti-social behaviour, he added, and said that gardaí take the lead on it.
“Our first policy is to engage with people, but when that doesn’t work, then we go down the road of tenancy warnings and then ultimately we’ll end up in the court process,” Mr Cooney explained.
“We’re one of the few councils in the country that have gotten very successful evictions through the courts as a result of anti-social behaviour. If there’s anybody out there that thinks they’re getting away with significant anti-social behaviour, they’re not. If it takes us 10 years to get them out, we will work for the 10 years,” Ms Carr said.
Who Watches the Watchers? 