AN ONUS to protect historic buildings has been neglected to paint Council owned property in over a decade, Ennis councillors have claimed.
In a proposal put before the Ennis Municipal District, Cllr Pat Daly (FF) asked that houses 19, 20 and 21 of the Old Military Barracks on the Kilrush Rd in Ennis be painted along with the outdoor stairs adjacent to them. “They have not been painted for over ten years,” Daly highlighted.
All three houses are owned by the Council, senior executive engineer Tony Neville confirmed. “I agree an uplift of the external facade of these properties would enhance the general area. However, our annual Housing Maintenance or Estate Management budgets are not sufficient to deal with such works. There are numerous estates within Ennis and countywide where similar requests have been made An increased budget for Estate Management has been requested and any works will be prioritised accordingly”.
At the very least, paint should be provided for the residents, Daly argued, “these houses are terrible at the moment”.
Residents are proud of the estate which is kept well, Cllr Mark Nestor (FF) noted, “it is a pity that the three houses are in the state they are in. I accept that money isn’t there, can we come up with a solution to help the residents, anything we can do to help would be welcome”.
Speaking at a recent meeting of the Ennis MD, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) outlined that prior to their conversion, the properties were historic buildings. “They are a mustard colour and look very bad,” he felt.
Flynn advised that he wrote to the housing section in October and believed the response from Neville was not acceptable. “They haven’t been painted in 20 years, they are prominent and historic buildings, we have an onus to such historic buildings to keep them in proper order”.
“These people are very proud but don’t have the wherewithal to paint their homes whether it is funds or the ability. We need to identify a scheme where we supply the paint, there has to be some way of facilitating this and working with them,” Cllr Mary Howard (FG) said.
