Cork grandmother’s council house being overrun by rats

A Cork city Southside council tenant has said she and her two grandchildren — both of whom have additional needs — have been “terrorised” by rats in her home.

Sonya Cassells has been a resident in a Cork City Council house in Loughmahon for 20 years and rodents have been a recurring problem.

However, in the past two years her home has been “overrun” by vermin.

Ms Cassells said the rats are getting into her home through sewerage pipes in the rear garden and are coming from a vacant neighbouring property, where refuse has been dumped illegally.

Ongoing issue

Ms Cassells said: “It’s been an ongoing issue, but the last two years have been extremely hard. They’re running through the attic, they’re getting in through the pipes, and they’re in walls and under the floorboards.”

“It’s breaking my heart and I’m getting nowhere with the council, all the phonecalls I’m making, I’m just getting nowhere.

“I’m onto them five days a week and they’re saying rodent infestation is the tenant’s problem.

“The rats are getting in from the vacant house next door. There’s dumping going on in there; you can see over the fence in my garden there are bags and bags of rubbish.

“I’d say something if my home wasn’t clean, but you can see I keep it spotless.”

Ms Cassells stores all of her clothing in plastic boxes, to protect them from the rats. Similarly, all foodstuffs in her kitchen are stored in plastic contain

ers.

Her home is extremely clean, and kept very tidy, but she says she is in constant fear and can regularly hear rats running in her attic.

“Sometimes, I get a smell coming from under the floorboards, and I know a rat has died, and I just have to live with the smell until eventually it goes."

Terrorised

Ms Cassells’s granddaughter is 18-months old, and her grandson is four. Both have additional needs and they visit their grandmother regularly. She says they have both seen rats running across the floor.

“We’re terrorised by the rats. I had one rat run across the floor, and I grabbed the hoover and I beat him with it. You could see all the line of black pee he left across the floor. The man from pest control said that’s how you can tell you have rats, the black pee,” she said.

“I’m washing the place with Dettol and bleach every day. I’m just scared one of the kids will get Weill’s disease from the rats,” she said.

A spokesperson said Cork City Council was aware of pest-control issues in the area, and while pest control in individual properties was a tenant responsibility, the council had undertaken a number of measures to address the problem.

They said the local authority was continuously clearing dumped waste in the area, and a pest-control company had been engaged.

Measures had been undertaken to address rodent entry points, and there had been ongoing engagement with tenants about hoarding.

They added that “tenanting of the neighbouring vacant property is being progressed as a priority”.