'I was getting headaches . . . my clothes and furniture have been wrecked'

JOHN KINSELLA moved his bed into his kitchen when the dark-green and black mould reached four feet up his bedroom walls. “I was getting headaches from sleeping in there,” he says, pointing to the fungus, which is almost reaching the light-switch on the wall.

A potent, musty smell is the first impression as he leads on to the bathroom, which he says he avoids using as much as possible. Mushrooms up to four inches across are sprouting from the skirting board around the floor by the toilet.

Mr Kinsella moved into the one-bedroom dwelling in the Tor an Rí estate in Balgaddy in September 2008. “There have been leaks almost since I moved in. I have never had hot water here and I have to keep the windows open most of the time because of the sewage smells.”

In the open-plan living area he points to water marks down the walls and all over the ceiling. He has been sleeping on a mattress on the kitchen floor for the past year, due to the mould affecting the walls in his bedroom. “My clothes and furniture have been wrecked by it too.”

He says he has had constant colds since moving in and says his landlord, South Dublin County Council, has responded intermittently to his requests for the damp to be addressed. He says now he just wants to be rehoused.

A few doors away, Mary Cooney moved into her house four years ago. Again one is struck by a damp, musty smell upon entering her two-bedroom home. She points out dark-yellow damp marks over the living room ceiling, particularly around the central light, which she says she has been unable to use since Christmas.

“There is damp all over the ceilings and upstairs too. The damp runs down the walls when it rains, so there’s no point putting shelves or pictures up. The council came out and looked at the roof outside but they haven’t been back yet.”

Her mother Brigid Cooney (59) lives nearby and also moved in four years ago. There’s dark green mould on her bathroom walls and she says the ceiling in the bathroom collapsed five months ago. It has been fixed by the council. Marks left by water flowing down the living room wall are clearly visible. “Whenever it rains there are pools of water coming down the walls to the floor.

“I am sick, sick, sick of it. I’d like to put my own colour on the walls and hang up my photos of the grandchildren. I can’t. I can’t put lino on my floor. I do get depressed because it’s all that’s been happening since I moved in. I just feel like the place is filthy all the time.”

In the Meile an Rí area, Deborah Gaffney is standing in her doorway as we pass. Asked her views on the area she says she “felt like [she’d] won the Lotto” when she moved in. “Now look at the state of the place,” she says, pointing to damp marks on exterior walls, plaster crumbling away. “I love living here but the houses are falling to pieces. The smell of sewage every summer is awful. My daughter won’t bring friends home she’s so ashamed of it. It’s so sad really.”

South Dublin County Council said it was working with all tenants to resolve issues. “The overall scheme is properly designed and constructed, particular building faults are, as previously stated, being evaluated and addressed on a house-by-house basis.”