Martina Sheehy, her husband Colm and their six children live in a cramped, damp, two bed-room council flat in Ballybough, about a mile from Dublin's O'Connell Street. Nine years in the flat, they have been on the housing transfer waiting list for the past five years.
Resting her youngest son, Daire (five months), on one hip, Martina shows the small kitchen where the only cooking facilities are a microwave oven and an electric grill.
"We had a small fridge under the counter. And a cooker here," she says, gesturing to a corner accommodating a tall fridge. "But when the youngest two came along we had to get a bigger fridge to keep food in. It would only go here, so the cooker had to go. We thought we might get one in here," she says turning right around, "but the kitchen door wouldn't open if we put it there."
The children eat their main meal every day at Martina's mother's. "She makes sure they get all the vitamins they need." They also do homework there as there is only a coffee table at home.
Her eldest son, Gary (14), sleeps on the couch in the small living room, while Mairéad (11), Ciara (8) and Niall (6) sleep on bunk beds in the first bedroom. Gary has a top bunk but, says Martina, "he keeps all his pitch-and-putt, hurling and fishing stuff on it. It's his only bit of space to keep things safe."
Next door a double bed occupies most of the spartan room, with a baby basket beside it.
"Cian (2) sleeps in the bed with me and Colm and the baby sleeps in the cradle, though it's too small for him. We have a cot bought but it's in my mam's. We have nowhere to put it because the kids' four bikes have to come in at night."
Martina (35) works part-time in a creche, earning about €8,000 per annum, while Colm (40) is a warehouse supervisor, earning about €32,000. "We pay the maximum rent - €89 a week." Though on the transfer list for five years, they had not enough "points" for a move until two years ago.
Since then they have been told by Dublin City Council that nothing suitable is available.
They have looked at buying. Under the council's shared ownership scheme they are eligible for a loan of €230,000, but they have not been able to find a suitable house within that budget in the council's catchment area.
Asked whether they could get rent supplement, Martina says they are ineligible "because we both work".
Charlie Lowe, central area manager with the city council, said dwellings are let according to priority. "We will always try to fulfil a family's housing requirements, but there are fewer three-bedroom houses available than two-bed apartments."
He would meet the family as soon as possible, he added.
