Some Tipperary social housing tenants treating homes ‘like dumps’
Some social housing tenants in Tipperary are treating their houses “like dumps” according to one local councillor.
At the January meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, councillor Shane Lee raised the issue of social housing tenants who don’t have a waste collection service, and instead, dump rubbish at the back of their homes, leading to issues for their neighbours.
"In certain situations, there’s definitely one house, if not two in our district where tenants are not behaving in a matter that they should,” Cllr Lee said.
"When someone’s not taking rubbish to the civic amenity sites, or they don’t have a bin. There’s one house in particular that’s in an appalling state. To think that, in 2026, in a housing crisis, that somebody would think it’s okay to treat houses like dumps is totally unacceptable.
"What are the consequences for people who behave in this manner? Because I take it very seriously in the sense of the people that do the right thing, the people that go out and do an honest day’s work and are finding it hard to make ends meet, but who ensure that their rubbish is correct, but there’s a certain, small element of people that think it’s okay to dump rubbish left, right and centre,” Cllr Lee added.
Agreeing with his district colleague, Thurles councillor Jim Ryan said that the issue of tenants not having a waste collection service is a huge one, and is something that he’s encountered a lot of over the years.
"This is a huge issue, I’ve come across it on numerous occasions in Thurles in particular, and it’s very unfair on the neighbours because of rats and mice and also smells.
"We’ve been contacted as councillors, who have then contacted the council, and there seems to be an awful delay in getting situations like that sorted,” Cllr Ryan said.
"We have to be tough, we can’t take the softly-softly approach with this,” he added.
In response, a representative from Tipperary County Council’s environment section said that the council is continuing to liaise with tenants in these situations.
"There is ongoing and active liaison between both the tenant liaison officer’s team and the environmental enforcement officer’s team, but this isn’t an issue that’s resolved quickly,” councillors were told.
"There’s no easy ‘out’ on these tenants. Under the terms of the tenancy agreement, it is the obligation of the tenant to have a waste service. We are aware of certain situations where that may not be the case, so the tenant liaison officer and the environmental enforcement officer will work with that person in terms of trying to mitigate the problem.
"From the environment section’s side of the house, where is the illegal dumping happening arising from it, because if it’s within the curtilage of the house, it’s a housing issue, under the tenancy agreement,” the meeting heard.
"But ultimately, there is recourse under the tenancy agreement, and through our litter pollution act,” he added.