Dublin locals have revealed the dreadful conditions in which they've been forced to live in their mould-riddled block of flats.
Mums from the School Street Flats told Dublin Live how their families have been struggling with physical and mental health issues since moving into the Dublin 8 accommodation. Sandra O'Reilly, 36, who has lived in the area all her life recounted a horror story after she swapped rooms with her kids due to the mould issues in theirs.
Pointing to an electric socket in the corner of the kids' room covered in black mould and damp, Sandra said: "That socket in their room went on fire because of the dampness. The damp got into it and it sparked."
Read more: Five-month-old baby has 20 year smoker's cough 'due to mould in Council housing'
Sandra said she works endlessly to get rid of the mould but it keeps coming back
She said: "It’s disgraceful because my kids are getting sick from it and no matter how much money I put into the house it’s falling down around me." The mum of three said one of her daughters was Her Lady’s Hospital Crumlin only last week.
She said: "She was put on steroids and two inhalers because it’s affected her lungs. She also has eczema. This [the mould] is bringing out the eczema."
Sandra also revealed how the water coming through the wall skirting has ruined her floors. She showed us a number of lumps and bumps on the floor caused by water damage.
She said: "In my bedroom, you’d slip on it because the floor is damp. It constantly happens whether or not it's raining."
When we entered Sandra's bedroom, the walls are covered in black mould and the wallpaper was peeling in places. She pulled the wardrobe away from the window to reveal black mould on the wall and huge droplets of water on the floor.
Sandra said: "All I do is clean, clean, clean. I'm a single mum and I work part-time as a cleaner. I do what I can but this has me suicidal."
Sandra's neighbour Lisa (name changed on request) said she's been suffering from a chesty cough after she moved into her flat nearly 18 years ago. Showing us a picture of a wall covered in mould, she said: "This is beside my head when I sleep."
Lisa's son has also been suffering from a chronic cough nearly all his life. She added: "My son’s room has a puddle of water in his room every morning. There’s condensation dripping down the walls every morning."
She said the ceiling in her flat looks like it's ready to fall in but hasn't been fixed despite repeated pleas. She said her bathroom ceiling is covered in mould and "if you’re going to the toilet or in the shower, you have water from the damp dripping down on you".
We spoke to another resident, Edel Collins, 43, who said she's had to rip out half of the floor in her bedroom due to the damage caused by water coming out of her walls.
She said: "The mould issues have made my anxiety and depression worse. My wallpaper is falling apart. There is actual water coming through the walls.
"My breathing… I’m on my third antibiotic and a second set to steroids and an inhaler. I still have to go back up to the doctor again because my breathing and my chest is very bad. It’s no way to live."
Edel pointed to a pipe on a damaged wall in the kitchen and said: "The old pipe kept leaking so they wrapped it in some latest stuff. It ended up busting so they put a new one in and you still have water coming through."
She removed a raggedy piece of cloth from a plastic bag which had "Hospital Five Post Natal St James's '84" embroidered on it. She said: "I found this stuffed in the old pipe."
We also spoke to Amy Leigh, 30, who said she had water leaking from the smoke alarm in the kitchen after flushing the toilet upstairs. She said: "I have three kids that suffered from eczema and the cold bedroom isn’t helping at all."
When we visit the children's bedroom has large droplets of water dripping down the wall.
Chelsea Ashmore, 27, who is pregnant with her fourth child, said her doctors told her she shouldn't be living in the flat. "I’m sick and the kids are sick all the time. We’re on antibiotics. I have pleurisy on my lungs. It’s affected me in so many ways. All my kids have bronchitis and asthma."
Repeated exposure to black mould can lead to lung infection, especially in vulnerable people like children and the elderly.
Founder Generation Health Medical Clinics, Dr Nina Byrnes, told Dublin Live: "Lung infection in general causes airway inflammation." One of the ways to prevent these types of infections, Dr Byrnes said, is to purify the air.
Dr Byrnes said: "An armoury of preventative measures is important. In a lot of older properties, there will be some mould or house dust will be in every property. Anything we can do to keep our air as clean as possible is good."
Dr Byrnes added: "For younger airways and more vulnerable airways, anything you can do to keep the air as pure as possible is good. I use ClevaPure Air Purifier and it removes the dust and mould in the air that can irritate a little baby's lungs.
"It's possibly a good addition to keeping the atmosphere as clear as you can."
A Dublin City Council spokesman told Dublin Live: "Dublin City Council is aware that some of our tenants can have issues with condensation in their homes. The most important thing that needs to be done if this occurs is to let the Council know through the usual means that our tenants would contact us.
In order to improve the quality of our housing units and also reduce the possibility of condensation in our housing units, the Council has over recent years carried out various works to help eliminate condensation."
The council established a housing sub-condensation group in 2017 to inspect and carry out works on properties affected by condensation. This group has since carried out conditional surveys on over 20,000 units.
The spokesman added: "As well as a conditional survey, we carried out specific damp reports on 2,500 units. In respect of these 2,500 units, we have installed mechanical ventilation in just over 1,300 units.
"Finally, Dublin City Council takes all reports of mould or condensation in our housing units very seriously and we will seek to work with our tenants to resolve the matter and also put measures in place to try to ensure long lasting solutions."
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