Mothers living together in a Dublin city apartment block have joined together to highlight their horrific living conditions.
Rats, open drug dealing, regular hospital trips, mental health problems and mould are just some of the issues that have been keeping the women awake at night since they first moved into Castle Court apartments.
A large dead rat with a long tail has been left to rot just metres from where the children play. Tablet packets and needles have previously been left discarded around the block and outside the Peter McVerry Trust's building.
Read more: Dublin mam at 'wit's end' with home under siege by giant rats and drug dealing in front of kids
The distressed mams feel they are failing their children due to their current living conditions and fear that the youngest kids may accidentally pick up a rat or get cut by a discarded needle left outside.
Dublin Live previously reported that a mother was being plagued by rats in a ground floor apartment of the building.
While, just yesterday an autistic non-verbal child ran out the front door towards busy traffic.
Joanne told Dublin Live that she fears that her four-year-old will pick up a pick up a needle or a rat while playing.
She said: "We are infested with rats. There are rats out the back. They are crawling up through the pipes. There in the walls, scraping in the walls.
Read more: Dublin mam's horror as autistic non-verbal child runs towards traffic from nightmare flat
"The clinic that was across the road has moved now. One time, I was bringing my son home from school and he's only four-years-old. He was wandering along and there was a needle in the corner. I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and said no. He got a fright because he thought I was getting cross with him.
"I'm a part-time carer. I did over two years living in a hotel room because I had no choice.
"The kids want to play here but there's no where for them to play. They are claustrophobic in here. There have been tablets found on the ground and kids were picking them up.
"I used to walk the kids to school but people were coming up to me trying to sell drugs. I've never touched a drug in my life. I feel like I'm failing my kids. I didn't do two years in a hotel to end up in this situation.
"It is causing severe depression, sincere anxiety. I take medication. All I want is the best for my children. I want to give them a home.
Joanne's neighbour has also heard scratching in the wall and fears the worst.
Tanya said: "I hear scratching in my walls. I don't know if they are after getting into the wall."
Neighbour Jade said that her teenage daughter no longer wants to live in the apartment block with the parents also trying to keep the younger children outside of the home for as of the day as possible.
She said that she would rather be in emergency accommodation than to be dealing with the mental turmoil of rats and illness.
She said: "My son has stopped breathing and the doctors are putting it down to damp. He has been hospitalised. I can't open a window because of the rats outside. When he stops breathing he goes purple.
"I cry my eyes out morning, noon and night. I ring the others sobbing."
Danielle said that anti-social behaviour is a serious problem with people smoking illegal substances and people sleeping in the doorway.
She said: "I’m living here with two teenagers squashed into a tiny room with nowhere to even store anything in the bedrooms. My daughter's health and her educational needs been affected .
"There is a rat infestation which is causing me to get no sleep with worry.
"There is antisocial behaviour going on in the building. I am finding empty sleeping tablet packets in the lifts and on the ground at the back doors. There are people smoking illegal substances and the smell is entering my bedroom and my children's bedroom.
"I have found people off the street asleep inside the doorway. There is rubbish dumped all over the place every day.
"I was waiting for an electrician since last year as I thought I had an electrical fault in my apartment and they still haven’t showed up. I'm just living a nightmare each day in the building .
"It’s a very stressful situation and it’s having a significant impact on my health. I cannot live in this building any longer with my children."
A spokesman from the Peter McVerry Trust said: ""All tenants viewed and accepted the properties before they moved in and would have had the time to familiarise themselves with the area prior to agreeing to take up residence.
"Tenants can, if they wish, request a transfer once they have been in the property two years, a standard local authority rule."
The spokesman said that unfortunately they had repeated instances of some tenants failing to adhere to basic waste management and had issued advice and warnings. They also said that Dublin Castle is a historic area which compounds the likelihood of rodents.
He said: "We have the bin area monitored by pest control and it is regularly cleaned out and power washed by our maintenance staff."
"We continue to engage with the tenants to remind them of their obligations and responsibilities and hope to find positive outcomes for all"
Read more: Giant rats leaving terrified Dublin residents 'afraid to leave windows open'
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