A Letterkenny family will spend Christmas day in a rented a cottage because the kitchen of their disintegrating home has been condemned.
Sharon Moss lives at The Grange with her husband and two sons. But their property has been reduced to “half a house” due to defective blocks.
Speaking during Monday’s protest in Lifford, Ms Moss revealed how the family has had to rent elsewhere so they can have Christmas dinner together.
“We have spent €800 on a cottage just so we can sit at a table together this Christmas.
“Our house was built in 2003 and when we bought it, it was brand new. But now it is cracked, it has mould and we are living in three rooms.
“One of our boys is at college and when he comes home, he has to sleep in the living room because his bedroom has been condemned.
“The kitchen has been condemned too but we still have to cook in it
even though the sockets are soaking.”
The Moss family faces the prospect of moving into a mobile home in their garden.
But that is likely to cost in the region of €10,000 with a further €1,000 to get it put in place.
They have already forked out €6,000 to have the house surveyed, money that they have since been assured will be returned to them.
That has yet to materialise though, leaving the family under huge financial strain.
“We haven’t got our €6,000 back. We have been promised and promised but here we are almost in December and not a cent.
“We received an email from Donegal County Council on Friday evening at 6.45pm sort of telling us that 400 homes are going to be sorted by mid-January.
“But the way it was worded, it sounded like things weren’t going to be looked at until mid-January.
“I’m so angry because you don’t send an important email like that on a Friday evening.
“It also said we might need to provide more information about our houses, that is probably not going to be me but you just don’t know.”
Ms Moss said the situation was “a joke and a disgrace”, adding that Donegal County Council needed to “buck up its ideas and start helping people”.
“The €6,000 we paid out, it was to pay for our other boy to go to college. We saved that money and we worked hard to earn it.
“It’s terrible but what can we do? We have to get on with living but we can’t make decisions because we don’t know what the future
holds.
“If we have to buy a mobile home will the next boy be able to go to college? These are the types of things we are having to consider.”
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