Priory Hall residents angry at Taoiseach

DISPLACED RESIDENTS of the Priory Hall apartment complex have expressed dissatisfaction at an email from Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s office in response to a plea for help.

Chairwoman of the Priory Hall Residents’ Committee wrote to Mr Kenny after one resident received an email from his office yesterday.

Mr Kenny’s office wrote that her correspondence would be copied to Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan. The email said Mr Kenny “has noted the points you raised” and “extends his very best wishes to you”.

Some 240 residents of the complex were forced to leave their Dublin homes 80 days ago due to serious fire safety risks. Residents were not satisfied with the reply because Mr Hogan has not met them.

“Although it is a very nice email, the problem is Minister Hogan has made it perfectly clear that he will not meet with the residents of Priory Hall,” committee chairwoman Sinead Power wrote in an email to Mr Kenny yesterday. She urged him to help. The plight of residents was being “ignored” by Government and was a “monument to everything that was wrong in this country for the last 10 years”, she wrote.

Mr Hogan could not meet with residents due to ongoing court proceedings a Department of the Environment spokesman said.

Later this month Dublin City Council will seek to overturn a court order to pay the accommodation expenses of the residents. “This month we have to fight to stay in our emergency accommodation,” Ms Power said.