Family in ‘unsafe’ caravan denied State help

A Traveller family living in a leaking, cold caravan was denied help from the State’s homeless unit just before Christmas despite an environmental health officer declaring their living conditions unsafe and inadequate.

Documents seen by the Irish Examiner show that the homeless unit in Clare told the family they were “not deemed homeless” as they lived in a caravan.

In her application to the unit, Mary O’Donoghue, a mother of 12, wrote she was living an old 14ft caravan with holes for the wind to come through and it was leaking. “I can’t stick it anymore,” she said. “Sometimes I need the nebuliser and the generator broke down again so we did not have light. It is too dangerous now.”