So damp even the dog had pneumonia

Things are so bad in ground flat number 16, even the dog has had a bout of pneumonia.

This is where Sinead Martin, her fiance Paul, and her two sons, Noel and Aaron, have lived for the past five years. Looking at the conditions, you wonder if it hasn’t felt like 25 years.

In the front room, the wallpaper is literally peeling away from the plasterboard, and coated with an evil-looking white dust. “That was only done last November,” Sinead says. “It’s rising damp and it’s coming up from the foundations.”