Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter, which relates to an issue over which residents of the Noonan's Road area are tearing their hair out. We talk about Noonan's Road, but we are really talking about the few flats just off it as well, in St. Finbarr's Road and other locations. Noonan's Road is the main thoroughfare in the area and was developed in the 1960s and 1970s after the lanes and tenements that had existed there were cleared. The area has never seen any real remediation in that time. In conversations with Cork City Council about maintenance requests for that ward of the city, this area and these apartments dominate.

If the Minister of State visits Cork over the coming months, I would love for him to meet the residents and see the desperate condition of these apartments. They are damp and cold and it is becoming clear there has been only tinkering around the edges. There have been numerous applications to the city council from the apartments and a lot of them have been turned down, although there has been a lot of back-and-forth between the Department and the council over the course of the past year and a half, since Deputy Gould and I last raised this with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in December 2021. At that time, there was an indication there was some back-and-forth with the council about funding, but it is now becoming apparent that tinkering around the edges is not going to do the job and that it needs full-scale regeneration.

The residents are organised and handed in a petition to Cork City Council on Monday. I commend them on what they are doing. What we need to hear from central government is that when Cork City Council comes with a serious proposal for full regeneration, the Department will fund it.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with my party colleague Deputy Ó Laoghaire. We have been dealing with the residents of Noonan's Road for years, but even before that, the residents of Noonan's Road and St. Finbarr's Road had been promised works on their flats for years, with very little done. These flats were built in a bygone time. We have to move beyond that now. Deputy Ó Laoghaire and I are looking for full regeneration, similar to other regeneration projects, where the flats would be knocked down and the residents would be moved elsewhere locally. Cork City Council now has two developments in the area, where houses that will be built could allow the residents to come back. That is happening in other areas that are being regenerated.

On Monday night, a petition was handed in. I mention in particular William O'Brien, who is organising the residents, and Sinn Féin councillor Fiona Kerins, who has raised this matter numerous times with Cork City Council. The houses are cold, damp and full of mould. These are very proud people who love their community and love where they live. They do not want to leave it but they cannot live in these conditions.

In 2019, energy efficiency monitors were put on some of those houses but we have never got the results of the report. Why was the report not released to the residents and councillors? This is a wonderful community. A bit of retrofitting or maintenance work will not do it. The flats are not fit for purpose. They need urgent regeneration action now. If this were a private landlord, they would not get away with keeping tenants in these conditions. Will the Minister of State commit to funding a full regeneration project for Noonan's Road, St. Finbarr's Road and the surrounding areas?

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter and am glad to have the opportunity to discuss the issue of housing conditions in Noonan’s Road in Cork’s inner city. The Government and the Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage are committed to ensuring tenants in social housing are provided with adequate housing that meets the standards most recently laid down in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019.

The Department is actively engaging with the local authority sector to promote the preventative maintenance of local authority housing stock and provides significant funding for stock improvement works. In addition to funding provided by the local authorities in respect of their own housing stock, the Department provides funding for a number of programmes to support the local authorities' work to maintain and improve their social housing stock. In all cases, it is the local authorities that identify priorities. The continued work of local authorities in undertaking stock condition surveys and their responsive and planned maintenance programmes, as well as important programmes such as the energy retrofitting and voids programmes, seek to support the local authority maintenance programme.

Cork City Council has advised the Department that this scheme was discussed at a recent council meeting and that councillors were briefed by the deputy chief executive on advancing a project to refurbish the homes in Noonan’s Road. Noonan’s Road comprises a number of properties dating from the 1960s, and Cork City Council has informed the Department that it recognises the scale of the challenge but also the significant potential of delivering the optimal solution for all of its tenants. The Department is aware Cork City Council has planned the refurbishment and upgrade of the Noonan’s Road housing development to include a deep energy retrofit programme and is cognisant of the residents’ concerns with regard to the longer term refurbishment and maintenance of the complex.

In that regard, Cork City Council has recently undertaken a detailed survey and assessment of the housing scheme in Noonan’s Road with a view to the progression of its refurbishment and upgrade. The council is reviewing the survey findings to consider next steps for the progression of sustainable and appropriate solutions to the housing development in Noonan’s Road.

While the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has not yet received a funding application, the Minister and his officials very much look forward to receipt of this submission from the council in this regard and will work closely with Cork City Council to ensure a sustainable solution is found for residents at Noonan’s Road.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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There is a bit in that. The Minister of State said the Department is waiting on an application from the city council. I suppose that is true and I will come back to that. The first thing I want to say is that I appreciate that he and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, are busy people. However, I am sure they will be in Cork at some stage over the course of the next year. The Minister likes to come down when there are positive developments. If he is in Cork in the next couple of months, I want him, or the Minister of State, to visit Noonan's Road because they need to see the condition of this place. They are a really strong and proud community but what they have been asked to live with is completely unfair.

I spoke to Councillor Fiona Kerins this morning and she recalls being at a meeting in 2003 or 2004. That is how long this has been going on. The work that has happened in that time has been very limited to individual houses and apartments here and there. The Department has a number of streams of funding, the largest of which is to do with retrofitting. What kind of funding stream is there for regeneration beyond retrofitting? Is a scheme available from which funding can be pulled? Will the Minister of State tell us more about that?

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State spoke about preventative maintenance, planned maintenance and deep retrofitting. There has been no planned maintenance or preventative maintenance done in Cork sine I became a councillor in 2009. There has been none. The Minister of State came in here and gave us an answer. There has been no funding to Cork City Council for those works to be carried out. I remember being chair of the housing committee in Cork City Council and being told it would be every three years. Then, I was told it was every five years, and then, because of cuts due to the financial crisis, there was no maintenance. It is time now to stop messing around.

This affects not only people on Noonan's Road but those in Clashduv, Dean Street, Cattle Market Avenue and others. I will give the Minister of State one example. A similar flat complex on Baker's Road was retrofitted approximately ten or 12 years ago and it is now back in the same condition. There is only one answer here and that is full regeneration of that area. As Deputy Ó Laoghaire said the next time the Minister of State is in Cork, he, or the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, needs to come and see what these people are living in.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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As I said in my response, the Department has not yet received a funding application for this particular project. Obviously, we cannot ascertain or put a figure on what needs to be done when we have not received the application from the city council. I suggest the Deputies talk to their counterparts in Cork City Council and get that application into the Department.