100 tenants evicted every year for anti-social behaviour

MORE than 100 tenants involved in serious and violent intimidation or drug dealing are evicted from their homes every year by local authorities.

Local authorities field thousands of complaints annually about anti-social behaviour. A team of investigators in one council area has examined 900 complaints from among less than 8,000 households. An estimated 15% of complaints are deemed serious, involving violence and drugs, according to councils surveyed. South Dublin County Council, one of the country's largest, deal with approximately 900 complaints annually.

Council officials surveyed said that an eviction or exclusion order for anti-social behaviour were the last resorts and would be carried out because of persistent violent behaviour including attacks on other homes and tenants or drug dealing.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Bernard Allen has tabled a series of questions to find out the extent of the problem nationwide and added it was very difficult for local authorities to get evictions because of the fearful reluctance of those targeted to substantiate allegations.

The Cork North TD said anti-social behaviour in local authority housing areas was getting worse and that he personally deals with four to five complaints a week at his constituency office.

Mr Allen described how one elderly woman in Cork now sleeps only during the day because of constant harassment. "She is a woman in her sixties who is kept awake every night because of intimidation. She's living in an area where there's a drug problem and there's a group that seems to get their enjoyment by breaking her windows and breaking her doors. "She spends most of her nights awake and sleeps during the day."

From his own knowledge, Mr Allen said the classic victims are either young single mothers or elderly people who live alone.

South Dublin housing officer Jimmy Kelly said a dedicated team of eight people investigates complaints. He added: "The community is suffering because of certain individuals. They just cannot live in a community and do everything they can to disrupt people's lives. The vast majority just want to get on with their lives."

Dublin Corporation official Damian Drumm said: "The last thing the city council wants to do is evict someone." But he added the council has a zero tolerance to persistent drug dealing from council houses and would not hesitate to take action in those cases.

In Limerick, there are about 100 while in Fingal, north Dublin, there are between 300 and 400.

According to national figures from 2000, 126 people were evicted from their homes while a further 11 exclusion orders were granted by courts against individual members of a family.

Another family member can apply for an exclusion order. In a case heard last week, west Dublin mother Brigid Larkin managed to get a barring order against her only son Darren because of his trouble-making. He is barred not just from the family, but from two estates in the area. It was one of seven exclusion orders recently granted against individuals in the Fingal County Council area.

There have been 12 in South Dublin, five in the last two years in Dublin city, but just one in Cork city and none in Limerick or Galway.

In Cork, around a dozen evictions have taken place while in Dublin city, there has been 31 in the last three years.