{"id":544272,"date":"2026-07-11T10:06:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544272\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T10:06:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T10:06:44","slug":"louth-council-ignores-disabled-woman-living-in-rat-infested-council-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544272\/","title":{"rendered":"Louth Council ignores disabled woman living in rat infested council property"},"content":{"rendered":"

A disabled woman who killed over 100 rats in one month has said Louth County Council are ignoring her requests to have the pest infested council house renovated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karen, who receives carer\u2019s and disability allowance, has lived in the property for more than two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was, she recalls, in \u201cabsolutely in bits\u201d and she spent thousands of her own money as the \u201ccouncil did nothing\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven or eight years ago, I bought a whole new fitting kitchen and bathroom because the house was dangerous – it wasn’t safe,\u201d she told Lunchtime Live<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bath and the sink were too close together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son is autistic; he kept falling out and hitting his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the only thing is, since day one, we had rats in the walls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Karen explained that the property dates back to 1949 and is extremely poorly insulated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mould is visible as soon as she walks through the door and the house is \u201cfreezing\u201d in winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of the medication she is on, she is constantly getting colds because of the medication she is on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, it is living with dozens of rats that worries her the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is something she has been logging complaints about to Louth Council for decades – all to no avail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re eating through the cement, which goes around the red brick itself,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when the walls are not pumped, there’s no cavity and it’s red brick and red brick, they’re able to eat right through and into the house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the run up to last Christmas, she caught 85 rats and killed a further 36 rats over a three period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were mice, by the way,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren’t because of the size of the feet, no hair on the tails.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Louth County Council has said it does not comment on individual tenants, but noted that residents of council properties are responsible for pest control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Main image: Rats caught by Karen. Image: Supplied.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A disabled woman who killed over 100 rats in one month has said Louth County Council are ignoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-544272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}