A chara, – Your report that 64 per cent of Dublin City Council's social housing tenants are in arrears to the sum of almost €38 million is extraordinary ("Nearly ¤38 million in unpaid rent owed to council", News, January 21st). Given that the rent charged is based upon ability to pay, how can this situation be justified?
According to some of the public representatives interviewed, “tenants don’t feel there is an urgency to pay their rent arrears”.
Is it any wonder that local councils and successive governments have been reluctant over the past few decades to engage in the type of social housing construction that changed for the better the lives of so many ordinary people living in Dublin from the 1940s until the 1970s.
Attitudes to social responsibility and personal morality have changed for the worse it seems. Given the pressure by some political parties to dramatically increase social housing construction in the medium term, the implications of such changed attitudes by modern tenants could have significant financial liability for the taxpayers if this situation isn’t addressed. – Is mise,
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Dr VINCENT KENNY,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.