Louth County Council queried over duty of care following rat infestation

The point at which Louth County Council's duty of care to its tenants in local authority housing has been queried, after a family in the area had to deal with a rat infestation for over eight weeks, including over the Christmas period.

Cllr Fiona Mhic Conchoille raised the matter at the Dundalk Municipal District January meeting, highlighting the issue faced by a local family, and while acknowledging that according to the tenancy agreement with Louth County Council, the tenant is responsible, said that when the issue of rats is raised, "it should ring alarm bells".

Cllr Mhic Conchoille told the January meeting that the family dealt with the issue for over eight weeks, including over Christmas, and while they knew they could manage it themselves, after a week of dealing with the infestation, they "reached out for a bit of help". 

The Sinn Féin councillor said that the family sought help from the Council, the HSE, the environmental section and was "going back and forth", "and all the time the rats were doing what they do best and multiplied", adding that the issue had affected other houses in the development.

Cllr Mhic Conchoille said that the infestation was not due to littering, but due to issues including the excavation of land and storm damage. She went on to say that St Vincent de Paul helped out by covering the cost of the pest control, but the family's doctor was now involved in the situation as a child was recently out of ICU, the children's school is now involved as the children were stressed after sleeping eight weeks downstairs, and the whole of the upstairs of the house had to be cleared.

The Dundalk-Carlingford councillor then asked at what point does the Louth County Council duty of care kick in as the landlord, as the family had "just reached out for a wee bit of assistance", and that there were now other houses in the area affected by the rats.

Replying to Cllr Mhic Conchoille, Senior Executive Officer John Laurence, said that pest control is a matter for tenants and that was "very clear in the tenancy agreement", but went on to say that the Council was looking into the issue as they were surprised to hear that the problem was moving into other houses, and they have to look at it now in greater detail.

Mr Laurence said that according to the information they had, the issue was only in one house and that in the eight weeks pest control was being carried out, "not one vermin was caught", which he added "wouldn't lend itself to indicate that there is an infestation".

Mr Laurence added however that they would look at it again, particularly if the issue has spread, further adding that there have been some works that have been carried near to the house, but stressed that they did have one of the Council's Clerk of Works out the previous Friday, "and we weren't convinced that there was a huge problem" as there was no evidence or vermin being caught.