County Council says eviction 'not always warranted' for convicted tenants

A member of Westmeath County Council has raised concern that “too many” council-owned addresses are featuring in the court reports appearing in local newspapers.

Cllr Aengus O’Rourke said that too often, the reports are of council tenants who have been caught up in various criminal activities.

“Some of the offences more recently have been quite serious, involving possession of weapons and things like that,” Cllr O’Rourke said.

He asked what action is open to the council when it is made aware – either through the media or the gardaí – of such cases.

“Are discussions commenced? Are these people called in?” he asked.

“Now, I'm not saying that it's every report from the courts, but quite a sizable number in recent weeks have involved tenants from addresses that belong to this council,” he continued.

Responding, chief executive Barry Kehoe stated that where tenants are convicted of criminal offences in the courts, this wasn't an immediate reason to move towards eviction or any such drastic measures.

“What we've got to look at in that context, Cllr O'Rourke, is whether or not there has been a breach of the tenancy agreement and whether or not the activity in question of which somebody has been convicted might constitute antisocial behaviour that we might need to act on,” he said.

Director of housing Ambrose Clarke concurred: “We have to look at whether there's a break of agreement or not. So there's a lot involved I suppose. Eviction is the last resort. But we do have a tenancy agreement with various parties, and we should be making sure that they're complying with that,” he said.