Leitrim Families Trapped by Council Housing Crisis as State Abandons Residents
Families in a Leitrim housing estate are facing a public health emergency as sewage systems collapse and roads sink, with the state failing to provide the €1.5 million needed for repairs despite collecting taxes from these very residents.
Residents of An Gairdín estate in Keshcarrigan, built just two years ago, are living with raw sewage backing up into their properties while their children cannot play outside due to the overwhelming stench. The 16-unit development near the Shannon-Erne Waterway has become a symbol of how our housing system abandons working families after developers take their profits and disappear.
Children Cannot Play Outside Due to Sewage Stench
"In the summer and spring months, my children cannot play outside for the sheer stench of the sewage. In the winter months, the sewage pipes get backed up," Andrew Travers told RTÉ, describing conditions no Irish family should endure in 2026.
James Ruddy, the longest-serving resident, explained how families are forced to rely on private companies to pump out sewage weekly. "We have no confirmation that the water and the sewage are not mixing underneath the ground. As a consequence, a lot of households are not drinking the water out of fear."
This is environmental injustice in action. While wealthy developers walked away with their profits, working families are left drinking bottled water in their own homes, afraid their taps may be contaminated with sewage.
State Abandons Responsibility to Citizens
A council report from 18 months ago identified the problems but concluded "remediation is not straightforward." The €1.5 million repair cost far exceeds the pathetic €56,256 bond attached to the estate, exposing how our regulatory system protects developers over families.
Minister for Housing James Browne has effectively washed his hands of the crisis, telling the Dáil that funding decisions rest with local authorities. His department confirmed there is "no longer a dedicated funding scheme for such housing estates," abandoning these families to their fate.
This is the reality of our housing system: socialise the costs, privatise the profits. Developers build substandard infrastructure, take their money, and disappear, leaving the state to clean up the mess. Except the state refuses to clean it up.
Families Trapped by System Failure
Maria Hoey and Garrett O'Boyle moved from Dublin three and a half years ago, spending €7,000 of their own money just months after purchase to fix broken pipes that should never have been installed incorrectly.
"We bought in all good faith," Hoey said. "Within a couple of months, €7,000 that we really needed for other projects in the house had to be spent on digging up our driveway."
Pamela Ruddy captured the human cost: "If I want to sell my house, we consciously couldn't do that because we would leave someone else with this problem. Are they just going to let this estate keep sinking?"
These families are trapped by a system that prioritises developer profits over basic human dignity. They cannot sell without passing on the problem to another family, yet they cannot afford to fix infrastructure that should never have failed.
Environmental and Tourism Threat
The crisis extends beyond these families. Residents fear sewage is leaking into the Shannon-Erne Waterway, threatening both the local environment and tourism that sustains rural communities like Keshcarrigan.
"I am afraid that there's leakage of sewage going into the Shannon-Erne [waterway]. For tourism, that isn't good," Pamela Ruddy warned.
This is exactly the kind of environmental disaster that results when profit comes before people and planet. Our waterways, our communities, and our families deserve better than a system that allows developers to externalise their costs onto society.
Time for State Intervention
Leitrim County Council claims it is "working with Uisce Éireann to put in place a programme of works," but residents have been waiting two years for action. Meanwhile, families continue living in conditions that would be condemned in any civilised society.
The solution is clear: the state must intervene immediately to fix this infrastructure, then pursue the developers and their insurers for every cent. These families pay their taxes, they deserve basic services, and they should not be abandoned because a developer cut corners and disappeared.
This crisis in Leitrim exposes everything wrong with our housing system. Until we put families before profits and hold developers accountable for their failures, more estates will sink while more families suffer in silence.