Priority two adaptation works won’t start until later this year
WHILE there were delays before the pandemic, Covid-19 has resulted in long waits for people seeking adaptation works to be carried out to their homes by Wexford County Council. Covid restrictions mean that only one tradesman can enter a home at any given time and it must be vacated by the occupant.
Cllr Michael Whelan was first to raise the issue.
‘I’ve had a woman get in touch with me who is looking to get a bath installed for her six-year-old autistic son. She’s been told that, as a “priority two” applicant, she’ll be waiting 18 to 24 months. If we are so far behind on this work, could we not outsource these jobs to speed things up and shift the backlog?’
Michael Doyle of the maintenance department replied: ‘We have a panel of contractors and these are guys who know all of our requirements and give us good value for money etc. Some of the lads have been doing work for us for more than eight years. If we were to open that up more, it would require more supervision. I’d be quite happy that we have a sufficient number of contractors presently.
The difficulty is that we are waiting on seven or eight people to leave their property so that work can be carried out at the moment. We can only bring in one trade at a time. Priority one cases will happen quickly enough. A huge effort is being made to catch up on the backlog.’
Cllr Whelan questioned whether a lady in need of a bath for her autistic son would not fall under priority one. Mr Doyle replied that he didn’t know the exact details, but conceded: ‘We’re only doing priority ones at the moment. It will be later in the year before we get back to priority twos.’
Cllr Mary Farrell raised the point that it was not always possible for people with additional needs to move out of their homes for work to be carried out and head of housing Niall McCabe stated that in situations where people can’t move out, the council are working with the likes of the HSE to try and come up with effective solutions.