'Illness was caused by the mould and damp': Cork mum in housing plea

The mother of an eight-month-old infant who was hospitalised with a chest infection that she says became exacerbated by mould and damp in their council home has appealed to Cork City Council to transfer them to better accommodation.

Caroline Fitzgerald has lived in a 50-plus-year-old council flat on Clashduv Road for the past 10 years, in a block of apartments of a similar design and vintage to flats in the Noonan’s Road area which the council has said it intends to demolish.

In common with her neighbours, Ms Fitzgerald says her home is prone to recurring damp and black mould.

In recent weeks, her young son Fionn’s coughing became so bad that he needed hospitalisation.

“Fionn was brought into hospital with respiratory problems, struggling with breathing, and he ended up on oxygen for two nights,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“The hospital said Fionn’s illness was caused by the mould and damp, and I have letters stating that.

“He’s on to his third antibiotic now since he was three-months-old.”

Ms Fitzgerald’s 20-year-old daughter has also had recurring issues with her chest and she is currently off work having broken two ribs coughing.

The family has lived in the Clashduv Road flat for the past decade, and Ms Fitzgerald has spent more than €30,000 in trying to damp-proof her home, but still the cold and damp persists.

Except for the black on the inside of the external walls, her home is spotless.

Ms Fitzgerald said she feels she has to move out for the sake of her children’s health.

She said she had put in for a transfer about six months ago, but while she had been told by one council employee that she could expect to be moved “within months”, she had received no written confirmation from the council that they would be moved.

An additional problem in the Clashduv Road flats in recent months has been an infestation of rats which have made their way through the walls and ceilings of the flats, and Ms Fitzgerald said she has heard the rodents running overhead.

Tenants in almost identical council flats elsewhere in the area, at Cherry Tree Road, Hazel Road, Sycamore Place, Maple Place, and Togher Road, have also complained of similar problems.

The flats date back more than five decades and follow the same three-storey maisonette design as social housing flats elsewhere in the city, including in the Noonan’s Road area, Baker’s Road, and Cattlemarket Avenue.

Originally planned to have a 50-year lifespan, the flats — according to tenants — have long-since become prone to cold, damp, black mould, and rodent infestation.

In September 2023, following a campaign by Noonan’s Road area residents which was helped by housing activist William O’Brien and highlighted in The Echo, Cork City Council told tenants that it favours the rehousing of tenants and the demolition of the flats.

The council’s then chief executive, Ann Doherty, described the conditions at Noonan’s Road as “shocking”.

Mr O’Brien told The Echo that the case of Ms Fitzgerald’s family was particularly upsetting.

“It’s very affecting to think of poor little Fionn getting sick because of the damp and the mould in his home, and his sister being made sick too, and it’s just not good enough in this day and age that Cork City Council is presiding over living conditions such as these,” he said.

“The council has a duty of care to its tenants and it’s just unacceptable that vulnerable people like Fionn are being left in conditions like this.”

Cork City Council was asked for a comment.