A Government backbencher has hit out at local authorities for what she described as their failure to create proper living conditions in some estates and flat complexes for tenants.

Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne said it was "no wonder most of the tenants living in them are in rent arrears" because they were "appalling places to live".

In a scathing attack on Dublin City Council Ms Byrne said she had been walking in the inner city visiting complexes on Braithwaite Street, School Street and Oliver Bond Street.

“It would do us all good to go and walk up and down the stairs in those complexes today and see the appalling state that tenants are living in. With no proper facilities and playgrounds, one would have serious problems . . .

“If not for the tenants cleaning their own balconies and painting their own walls, they would not be able to live in half of these places,” she said.

Devastated
Highlighting the problems with large estates built in the 1970s and 1980s she said: "I am devastated at this stage that the city council has not got its act together to be able to give tenants a proper place to live."

She said if she or Minister of State for Housing Jan O’Sullivan were “living in the conditions half of them are living in, we would not pay any rent. That is a terrible indictment on the local authorities to allow tenants to continue living in these complexes”.

Ms Byrne was speaking during a debate on the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which provides for changes to social housing support and assistance in Ireland.