‘The walls in my bedroom are so bad, I’m terrified to sleep in the room’

A 54-year-old COPD sufferer has told how she is terrified to sleep in the mould-ridden bedroom of her council house in Athboy and is pleading with Meath County Council to transfer her for the sake of her health.

Deborah Harris lives at 12 Church View with her 22-year-old son and says she is “at her wits’ end” over the dampness and black mould on the walls of the home she moved into two years ago.

While she has established herself in the community and doesn't want to move from the area, she says nothing the council has done to try sort out the dampness has worked. Apart from her deteriorating health since moving in, Deborah is struggling to meet the expense of heating the house.

She is on disability benefit and says that it is costing her €70-€80 a week to heat her home and after paying rent of €58 to the council, she has less than €100 to live on and for all other expenses.

Deborah is originally from Dublin but has been in Meath for more than a decade. She was in private rented accommodation in Ballivor and after six years on the housing list was offered a two-bedroom home in Athboy which she moved into with her son in June 2022. The house was newly painted when they moved in, but within weeks there was a leak with water running down the wall near a light switch and Deborah said you could see a wet patch on the wall in the hall. Then there was another leak in the hotpress which caused the door to warp and two days before Christmas 2022, Deborah could literally hear the water gushing as another leak sprung in the hotpress.

Apart from the issue with the leaks, she told how you could see water on the wall “like teardrops” and by October/November, black mould started on the walls.

“I was never really sick apart from the odd chest infection before I moved in here. Last year I had about 20 chest infections where it go to the point that I was diagnosed with COPD,” said Deborah.

“We bought new beds when we moved in but now there is this orange like mould under my son's bed so he is now sleeping on a blow-up bed. The walls in my bedroom are so bad I am terrified to sleep in the room. There is still mould in the living room but it is not as bad.”

The attic has been insulated, the cavity in the walls have been insulated and new vents have been put in by the council but Deborah says nothing seems to rectify whatever is causing the dampness and that “it is still freezing”.

“A company came to change the insulation in the attic last year and when they took out the old stuff it was saturated, soaking wet. The guy went up first and came straight back down and said don't go up there without full PPE gear. In November of last year, they washed down my son's room, sealed it with a primer for mould. The painter spent two days doing it but within a month, the mould had started coming back again all around the bottom of the walls,” she explained.

“My doctor wrote a letter that I need to be in a mould free house because of my COPD and I have a very low immune system.” Deborah said she looked for a transfer last May but was refused as the council decided that she was adequately housed. She appealed this decision in June but is still waiting on a decision.

“I have lovely neighbours. I am established here. I don't want to move to another area. It's the condition of the house. I am terrified to touch the walls. My immune system is in my boots. “

As well as COPD, Deborah has fibromylagia, osteoarthritis and thyroid problems.

“I am at my wits’ end. I have been ringing nearly every week since the appeal. I just want to live in a mould free house and one I can afford to heat.”

Meath County Council was contacted but a spokesperson said it cannot comment on individual cases.