Eleanor's housing eviction
Deputy Boyd Barrett described the eviction of Eleanor, a blind disabled woman, from housing linked to St. Mary's Centre and the Sisters of Charity. The Tánaiste asked for the details and said he would assist, though he could not comment on rezoning matters.
Eleanor is 70 years old, is blind and lives in St. Mary's Centre - Telford - Merrion Road houses and apartments. It is the same site she lived in as a child in the St. Mary's asylum for blind girls and women, an institution named in the Ryan report and in the Residential Institutions Redress Act. As a result of a tactical liquidation by the Sisters of Charity, the institution to which we plan to turn over the national maternity hospital, she is being evicted from the housing, which was essentially leased and funded by Dublin City Council. A blind, disabled woman is being evicted by the Sisters of Charity. She does not want to leave but is under major pressure and is a vulnerable woman. This follows the loss of 200 jobs at the Caritas disability centre on the same site, where the workers only got statutory redundancy at short notice. The Sisters of Charity have sought to rezone the land and will make €50 million profit out of it. Could we have an intervention to protect Eleanor?
Comment on this
I ask the Deputy to give me the details concerning Eleanor. It has not been raised with me before and I will happily do whatever I can to assist in that case. I cannot comment on matters of development planning like rezoning and so on, but with regard to Eleanor's situation I will provide whatever assistance I can.