Residents encouraged to report overcrowding
By Maurice Garvey
DUBLIN City Council recently established a new section within the Housing Department, to tackle serious issues in the private rented sector with a number of issues being reported in recent weeks.
This includes overcrowding – an area that has received considerable media coverage in recent times due to the housing crisis and lack of regulation in the market.
DCC’s campaign, encourages residents to report private rented dwellings suspected of overcrowding, fire safety, excessive waste, or health and safety maintenance risks.
Whilst previous city council initiatives to tackle sub-standard rental accommodation, have led to criticism of toothless action - DCC say a newly formed rapid response team of environmental health officers can “respond efficiently and effectively to complaints.”
A DCC spokesperson told The Echo the team “aim to undertake a site visit within 24 hours of receiving the referral.
“The primary aim of this initial site visit is to gain access to the property and undertake an inspection. This inspection will then inform the team as to the direction of any subsequent investigations warranted by the various sections within DCC.”
Subsequent to all inspections, DCC say appropriate enforcement action will be taken under the Housing Regulations 2017.
Referrals are also made to the Planning Department, Dublin Fire Brigade and other DCC departments.
“Where necessary joint inspections and enforcement actions will be taken,” said the spokesperson.
“The compliment of Environmental Health Officers has increased to 17 with three more due to start in the coming weeks.”
DCC are set to launch a social media campaign to better inform the general public.
In response to an Echo query last week, DCC said “to date one telephone call and three e-mail public enquires have been received and three e-mail internal referrals received.”
