Cllr Mark Casey: 'Unfinished building sites look more like Beirut than rural Ireland'

Joanne O'Rourke bought a four-bedroomed house in the Silver Birches development outside Longford town almost three years ago. The site is near the well-regarded Stonepark National School, and not far from one of the town's longest-established residential roads. But that's where the plus points end. It's uncertain as to how many houses are sold between those completed and the equal amount in various, unsightly stages of in-completion. Joanne believes only about four families are owner-occupiers while some other houses are rented out. One of the reasons Joanne and husband David bought here was because a crèche was promised – ideal for the couple's baby daughter. Said crèche did open, briefly, then closed again after a few weeks simply because not enough houses sold in the development.

"We got what we thought was a bargain at the time. When we moved in, everything was going great; there was still work going on and it looked like we would get all those amenities promised such as a leisure centre and tennis courts." But three years on, the builders have long departed and many houses are simply concrete-block shells. And that's not the least of the worries of the few people who have bought here. Joanne laughs derisively when asked what it's like living in this silent, deserted place. "We've had so many problems with the house itself, and there is no-one to fix them. Our shower packed up last weekend, but there is no way the plumber who worked on the site will come and fix it because he never got paid. We will have to re-plumb the bathroom, and the cost has to come out of our own pocket, not the developer. The plastering was never finished on some of the walls. At the end of our footpath, sewage seeps out of the manhole cover. The council came out and fixed it initially, but it's an ongoing problem, especially when it rains. One of the worst things of all is the lack of street lighting. When you walk out the front door at night, it's pitch dark. You can't see a thing. As a result, people living here don't feel safe. The unfinished houses attract rats and anti-social carry on such as building materials being robbed and gangs of kids looking for drinking dens."

The couple have made fruitless attempts to speak to BCS Homes, developer of the estate. "They've changed their number, and we've been able to track them. But they just hang up each time. When we signed the contract originally, there was an agreement that the developers would maintain the estate until every house was sold."

The couple are massively in negative equity, but "luckily we are both still working and I was able to locate a crèche elsewhere for our daughter", says Joanne. "My only hope is that the economy improves within the next couple of years and that the development will finally be completed."