Desperate family squatting in council house

A desperate Navan family who are squatting in a council house in Navan that had been boarded up for nearly two months say they are “begging on their knees to be allowed stay there”.
Tom Stokes said he took the drastic action as he feared for the life of his baby daughter, as she had already been treated for pneumonia when she was less than two months-old because of the appalling conditions in which they had been living.
Things took a desperate turn over a week ago, when the little girl, Mya, started to get chesty again and her father decided to enter the house in Tailteann Close, which was boarded up apart from one window.
He said he is more than willing to pay the proper rent for the three-bedroom house, which is warm, clean and ideal for his two children.
However, he said he has been threatened by Meath County Council that it will have the electricity, gas and water supply to the house cut off.
“They told me we cannot stay here and have even threatened to have our social welfare cut, although I don’t think they can do that,” he said.
Mr Stokes made a desperate public appeal for help over a month ago when the family was living in emergency accommodation after their 15 week-old baby daughter,   Mya, had been hospitalised twice, once with pneumonia, due to their damp living conditions.
Doctors and medical social workers had written to Meath County Council on the family’s behalf warning that their living conditions were making their daughter’s condition worse.
Tom and his partner, Bridget, said the damp room in which they were living with two small children was detrimental to their health,
Fears that baby Mya was about to get sick again sparked his move  to enter the house in Tailteann Close,
Tom Stokes said he had furnished the council with a letter from a doctor in Temple Street Hospital which stated his daughter, Mya, had been treated for pneumonia and warning that to prevent further infection, she needed suitable warm and dry living conditions.
A medical social worker from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda had also written to the council pointing out that their living conditions could be exacerbating her condition.
Mr Stokes said: “My family was at risk. That is why I had to do this.  
“The council want us to go back to the awful one roomed damp flat we were in on Brews Hill, but I couldn’t do that to my children,” he said. “I am appealing to the council to let us stay here. We need this clean, fresh, dry environment for my kids’ health.”  
Local Sinn Fein TD Peadar Tóibín said “that while no-one can condone the illegal occupation of a house, as the housing crisis escalates, families are being forced into desperate actions in order to put a roof over their children’s heads”.
He said there were well over 4,500 people on the housing waiting list in Meath at the moment.
“It is clear that, as the crisis becomes more acute, people are being pushed to desperate measures,” the Meath West TD added.
A spokesperson for Meath County Council said the local authority was aware of the illegal occupation of two council-owned houses in Tailteann Close, and said it will be taking the appropriate steps to deal with the matter.
The house in question in this case became vacant on 24th February last.
“Meath County Council wishes to point out that there are currently 4,497 households on our social housing waiting list, and illegal action such as this deprives those social housing applicants who are due to be offered social housing of having their housing needs met,” the spokesperson added.
She said anyone facing difficulties is encouraged to make contact with the county council’s homeless service.