Decent tenants should be protected by the council

LAW abiding, decent rent-paying tenants of Louth County Council should not be driven from their homes by anti-social elements within estates.

That’s the view of Cllr Pearse McGeough (pictured) who raised a case at last week’s Ardee area meeting, where he claimed that ‘a victim’ was being ‘encouraged’ by the council to be put on the transfer list.

‘I think law abiding tenants are valuable to estates’, he stated.

Cllr Jim Tenanty said the council needed to develop a heavy handed approach to unruly tenants. ‘One person could be causing a problem and it it’s not tackled, it festers. If we create a problem, we should solve a problem’, he urged.

‘We have to protect our tenants and can’t allow rogue tenants to be able to causr trouble in estates.

Cllr Dolores Minogue said there were two ways to solve matters, and often a few words with a tenant sorted out situations, as she had discovered.

The council urged people to make complaints to them and the gardai and then they could be progressed.

The councillors also praised the outgoing Director of Housing Joe McGuinness for his great work in the past. He is to be replaced by Paddy Donnelly. Mr McGuinness becomes Director of Corporate and Emergency Services. His work on securing homes in Louth via Compulsory Purchase Orders gained him national comment.