Dublin mam at ‘wit’s end’ with home under siege by giant rats and drug dealing in front of kids

She said that drug abuse is a serious issue around her block with people smoking crack just outside the front door

A Dublin mum is at her wit’s end with her home under siege by giant rats and anti-social behaviour.

She told Dublin Live that she cannot sleep properly because she can hear rats scratching in her room during the night.

And she worries that one of her three little children might end up touching rat droppings or a discarded needle left outside their home.

The Finglas native told Dublin Live that she cannot face another night at home.

She said: “We are infested with rats, damp and mould. There are small children in this building from three years up to eight years of age.

“There’s nowhere for the children to play.

“We live facing the drug clinic, and when you are walking out your door to bring your children to school, you have people from the clinic coming up to you asking you are you looking for stuff in front of your small children.“

“There are people smoking crack outside my front door when I’m bringing my child to school.

“There are tablet packets on the stairs.

“People are drinking and shouting all night.

“The whole of the building shares the same mailbox and on two occasions my packages have been opened.”

She found one of the rats near her washing machine, which she had to kill – and the rats, she says, are just the tip of the iceberg inside the apartment.

“I heard a rat this morning around 3am,” she said.

“I could hear it scratching. I can’t live here. We moved in three years ago. The radiator was broken. I’ve had no hot water for six weeks.

“I’m on the ground floor so I get all the problems.

“There were sewage problems, they had to get a draining company out. The smell was coming through my apartment.

“The oven broke during lockdown and I had no oven for six weeks. I had to make dinner for me and my six year-old child on a camping hob.

“The front door is being left open all of the time and there are people dumping rubbish. It’s just been one thing after another.”

The horrified mum’s mental health has deteriorated and she has been prescribed antidepressants.

However, she is more worried about her six-year-old daughter’s frail health.

She said: “It’s freezing, [her youngest daughter] always has a cold.

“It’s not safe at all. She could get a needle in her foot or something. I had to try and have a conversation with her. I said not to go over there and to watch where she walks.

“I want to be moved and they are telling me six weeks. I can’t spend another six weeks in this property. It’s not safe at all.”

Dublin Live have contacted the Peter McVerry Trust for comment.

Fred is interested to know why Peter McVerry Trust has been contacted.? Has Dublin City Council; or maybe it is Fingal sub-let a block of apartments to Peter McVerry Trust.? Whoever is the overseer, they must be brought to the fore, named, shamed, whatever. The description here is shocking. Children have suffered enough with 2 years of COVID-19, now followed by the most serious crisis in European history with the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia. If this is what how we treat Irish people and children at present, what happens when many Ukrainian exiles/emigrants land in Ireland and need accommodation. It bodes badly for our performance and duty of care to house people with due respect, which is already rock bottom of the scale. Imagine the number of homeless, the children who are in hostels. I recommend people link up with Frank O’Connor, Jude Sherry, Anois, EcoEye, (Twitter) – these people are actively involved in getting sustainable community living back in place. There are many derelict properties in Ireland and proper analysis could see people move into homes in existing communities rather than complexes like the above.