By Maeve Rowan
The High Court has upheld retention permission for renovation works to a house at Townlough Upper, Portroe, near Lough Derg, dismissing a neighbour's challenge to An Bord Pleanála's December 2023 decision.
James Ó Murthuile sought to quash permission granted to Martin Flynn for renovations and alterations to an existing house, together with a septic tank, percolation area, gravel parking and associated works.
The site has a lengthy planning history. Tipperary County Council refused an application to renovate and extend the property in 2007, describing the building at that time as not substantially intact. Later applications were withdrawn or deemed withdrawn. An enforcement case was also opened, and an enforcement notice issued in August 2022.
Flynn applied for retention permission in July 2022. The council decided to grant permission in November that year. Ó Murthuile appealed, arguing among other things that the structure had been a derelict ruin rather than a dwelling and that any residential use had been abandoned.
Farrell J rejected that argument. She held that disrepair, or even a period when nobody lives in a house, does not by itself establish abandonment of residential use. The Board had evidence supporting its conclusion that the house had been regularly occupied between 2008 and 2019 and was entitled to treat the application as refurbishment of an existing dwelling rather than a new rural house.
The court also found that the Board had considered the previous Airbnb use. Retention permission for short-term letting had not been sought, and the judge held that the Board did not need to impose a condition simply requiring compliance with planning law.
Challenges based on the Tipperary County Development Plan, rural housing guidelines and alleged inadequate reasons also failed. A separate claim concerning possible effects on the Lough Derg Special Protection Area was rejected because no evidence established the claimed hydrological connection from the site.
The proceedings were dismissed, with consequential matters listed for 13 October 2025.