Put rental income back into social home maintenance - Mayo councillor

RENTAL income from social housing needs to go back into the repair and maintenance of council-owned homes in Mayo.

Councillor Gerry Murray made the call at a municipal district meeting where members expressed frustration at difficulties in getting contractors to do small jobs.

In Dublin, all the rental income from social housing goes back into maintaining homes, he pointed out. Tenants there, he said, would not stand for a substandard service.

In Mayo, €4 million is spent out of the €7 million taken in.

The local authority, he said, needs staff to deliver an efficient service and they should have people employed who can go out directly from the council to do a lot of the small jobs that are no longer of interest to contractors.

This needs to be looked at seriously at their next estimates, he said.

The councillor also said there should be latitude where a tenant can get a small job done and get credit on their rent on production of a receipt.

* Funded under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme