A mother of one from Wexford has claimed that the sound of rats in her attic has left her son lying awake crying at night.
Aoife moved into a housing estate in Gorey six years ago only to discover that eight adjoining houses were unoccupied.
"I could get up in the morning and there are two or three dead [rats] outside my front door", said the mother.
Aoife told RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline that the problem arose when her family got a strange smell in the house that lingered for days. When her partner went up to the attic he found ten dead rats inside the insulation.
The family have enlisted the help of pest control specialists to rectify the problem on three occasions but to no avail.
"I've even been to [the] environmental health [department], the derelict structures department in the local council, to solicitors - everything, but nobody can do anything."
Aoife's 9-year-old son, who suffers from ADHD and Aspergers, has been badly affected by the invasion.
"He hears noises in the attic and he starts crying", she said. "I've tried explaining it to him hundreds of times that... they can't get down to us."
The mother went on to say that the issue has become so bad they've had to strip all insulation from the attic and even replace their boiler.
While Aoife has commended Wexford County Council for their efforts in cleaning up the ghost estate, she noted that "nobody will buy a house in the estate the way it is - it's horrible."
