Rats force Traveller family to live in van

FIVE children and their parents are being forced to sleep in the back of a van because their damp mobile home has become infested with rats.

The Clare family has been living at an emergency Traveller site for the past five years at Bellaghboy, Co Clare, which first opened as a temporary site but is now scheduled for closure.

Father-of-five Francie Doherty, whose wife is pregnant, said he has been on the council housing waiting list for eight years and claimed the council has not “kept its end of the bargain” and provided his family with a home.