I acknowledge the presence of the Minister of State for further and higher education on the Government side. The Minister of State is a very fine Minister of State but I find it rather upsetting that we do not have the senior Minister in the House.

Sentiment score: -0.28

This is a very serious debate and some very serious questions need to be answered on what we are discussing here. I commend my colleagues in Sinn Féin on bringing this to the House and I welcome those people to the Visitors Gallery. I say to tenants in Dublin that they are not alone in what is happening in their properties. We have exactly the same thing in Cork city and county. I received a copy of an email from Councillor Noel O'Flynn, a former Member of this House and member of Independent Ireland. He informed me that he received an email from one of the senior engineers in Cork telling him that a B2 energy rating by the time the flats will be completed in Mary Aikenhead Place will be 2050. Most of those people will have reached their eternal reward. Those flats were built in 1959. It was the first set of flats and has not been retrofitted. Other flats around them have been retrofitted but they have not. We can go to Blackpool and to Farrancleary Place. Those flats were built in the 1960s. They have no fire escape, despite the issue being brought up in this House on a regular basis. The set of steps there is bad anyway but if there is a fire in those flats, we are going to lose over 100 people because there is no fire escape. That has been flagged with Cork City Council on a regular basis and Cork City Council has applied for funding and has requested Government funding. It is all very well for junior Ministers to come in here and to say that the duty of care is a matter for the local authority. That is no good unless the Government is funding it. That is no good unless the Government is handing down the money and making it available. We can walk down into Blackpool and into Madden's Buildings, which were built in 1868. We can go up the hill and into Roche's Buildings, which are 18th century buildings. We can visit Kelleher's Buildings in Dillon's Cross or Ryan's Buildings in Ballymacthomas. Those buildings have been there since the 18th century and there has not been a tack of retrofitting. The only retrofit that happened was that the outside toilets were brought in in 1991 and bathrooms were fitted, thanks to Noel O'Flynn. In Roche's Buildings at the moment, tenants have water streaming down through Velux windows. Tenants have water streaming down the walls because soffits have not been replaced and building work has not been done. No retrofit has been carried out despite continuous calls from the local authority requesting money to do that. We can go to the south side. I have an email from Councillor Albert Deasy, a very fine independent councillor in Cork city. He is a great man. He has been working in the Taoiseach's constituency. He is a member of the council in the Taoiseach's constituency. You would think that the Taoiseach might have a small bit of influence over what goes on in his constituency. The Togher flats now have a situation of chronic dampness, black mould and rodent infestation. I must also mention that there is a rodent infestation in Mary Aikenhead Place. There are serious structural defects there. A series of problems is continuously happening and yet we are being told that the Government is providing money for retrofitting. Why are these flats not fixed? Why are the people in the Gallery here? Why are we not fixing that and addressing those issues? They have been around since 1860 and 1959. It seems absolutely absurd. I meet constituents every day of the week. I have constituents with black mould in their properties. We all have photographs. It is okay if the Minister of State wants to go. We have so many people who have sent photos that are now on our phones. Every TD has photos of black mould on walls or water coming down in flats and council houses. We continuously come across such situations and it is not acceptable. Nobody should have to live like that.

Sentiment score: 0.04