A group of charities is calling for urgent action to improve conditions on a Co Dublin halting site which, despite being designated as temporary, has housed up to 200 Travellers for over six years.
The organisations accuse Fingal County Council of seriously neglecting the St Christopher Fields site on the outskirts of Finglas, which they claim is rat-infested and hazardous for the large numbers of children living there.
The groups urging the reforms are the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Barnardos, Crosscare and The Finglas Traveller Movement.
The council says it plans to renovate the St Christopher Fields site once it has finished upgrading a site opposite it, St Mary's, which also houses up to 200 people.
Work began recently on a 10-month, £1.3 million project to install better sanitation and cooking facilities at the St Mary's site. Some 30 families who lived there have been moved to St Christopher Fields while the work is carried out, bringing the number of inhabitants there to about 400.
Mr Fergus Lynch, a senior administrative officer with the council, acknowledged that living conditions at St Christopher Fields need to be improved.
However, he said the council's "constant attempts" to maintain facilities there have been hampered by persistent vandalism. Toilet bowls are regularly destroyed and two crews of council workers who tried to carry out repairs on the site in the past four weeks were stoned, he said.
The new sanitation facilities for both sites, which will include a toilet, shower and kitchen area per family, had to be specially made in galvanised steel.
Mr Lynch said both sites would remain unofficial and temporary after the renovations, but with "full permanent facilities".
He said increasing numbers of Travellers were moving into the council's area and it was very difficult to get permission for permanent sites. But the charities say both sites should be designated as official and permanent.
Ms Frances McDonagh (25), a mother of three who has lived at St Christopher Fields for four years, described conditions as "worse than Third World".
Ms McDonagh, who has a four-year-old mentally handicapped and asthmatic son, complained that sewage leaked from her outside toilet made of galvanised metal. She said the street lights were broken and rubbish skips were not emptied regularly.
"Every morning I find one or two dead rats out here which my dogs have killed," she said, gesturing to the ground outside her drive. The open spaces around the caravan bays are strewn with rubbish and charred remains of household items and overgrown with weeds and nettles.
The groups calling for the improvements formed the Travellers' Education Support Options (TESO) project, which aims to improve educational opportunities for Travellers in Finglas.
TESO said Eastern Health Board doctors and the Barnardos mobile clinic have confirmed that skin diseases such as scabies and impetigo are common among children at St Christopher Fields. Other health problems include chest, ear, throat and kidney infections.
"The ill-health is an issue and the frustration of not getting anything done has been extremely depressing for the adults living here and that has had an impact on their lives," said Ms Midge Nowlan, the organisation's co-ordinator.