‘It is indefensible’ – Anger as 52 Tipperary houses ‘as solid as the Rock of Cashel’ to be demolished
Over 50 houses in Tipperary that are planned to be demolished are “as solid as the Rock of Cashel,” according to a Tipperary TD.
Tipperary County Council is proposing to demolish 52 derelict, half-built homes at Ballypadeen, in Cashel, on the site of the former Cashel Kings Motel.
The council is planning to demolish the houses because when planning permission for them was granted in the early 2000s, the houses were to be used as holiday accommodation for the proposed hotel on the site, which never materialised.
The houses formed part of an overall plan to build an international trade centre, international arbitration centre, an aparthotel with 176 bedrooms, 32 apartment suites complete with restaurants, lounge bars, conference rooms and function rooms, leisure centre and swimming pools.
Only the houses were ever built on the site, with works eventually stopping after a few years, with a lengthy legal battle involving the council and the developers of the site.
Under the plans being progressed by the local authority, the houses would be demolished at a cost of €400,000, with the council handing the site back to the landowner once the buildings have been cleared.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday, and said that the houses are solid and should be brought back into use, rather than being demolished.
"In the middle of a national housing crisis, the decision by Tipperary County Council to demolish these 52 partially built houses defies logic,” Deputy McGrath said in the Dáil.
"These units are not mere shells, most of them are finished with windows and doors, many of the windows and doors have been vandalised, to no fault of the developer, and I want to complement the developer on such fine, sturdy mass concrete houses.
"All the roofs bar one are perfect – one is slightly damaged whether it’s vandalism or weather – but an independent assessment described them as solid structures, far from derelict,” Deputy McGrath said.
The Tipperary TD said that a number of builders and developers had expressed an interest in redeveloping the site into homes, but despite this, the local authority still wanted to press ahead with the demolition plans.
"They want to demolish 52 houses, we have 3,600 families or people on the approved housing list in Tipperary, and here we have 52 fine three-bedroom houses, and the council is seeking to knock them.
"It is indefensible that viable housing stock is being destroyed rather than repurposed for private, social, affordable or indeed, health facilities,” Deputy McGrath said.
While the land that the houses sit on is unzoned and unserviced, given the national housing emergency the country finds itself in, the Tipperary TD says that flexibility needs to be applied in this case.
"The council states that the buildings were originally intended as tourism accommodation and that the site is unzoned and outside the settlement boundary, but now we know that has all changed.
"This is 20-year-old legislation, we’re in an emergency as we know, and the national housing policy demands flexibility and reuse, not rigid adherence to outdated classifications when thousands need homes, we need to think outside the box here,” he said.
In response to Deputy McGrath, Frank Feighan, Minister of State at the Department of Infrastructure, speaking on behalf of Housing Minister James Browne said that even though tackling derelict buildings is a key part of the Government’s housing plans, some buildings cannot be saved.
"In respect of the units referenced by Deputy McGrath, neither the units themselves or the site they were built on are owned by Tipperary County Council. The houses were not designed to be or ever intended for permanent residential use,” Minister Feighan said.
"Were it deemed suitable for long-term social housing, the local authority may have considered a compulsory purchase order (CPO), however, there is no viable option to adapt the existing structures for residential use,” he said.
"In this case, the demolition of these unfinished units is necessary given they are in private ownership and not suitable for long-term residential use,” Minister Feighan added.
Appealing to Housing Minister James Browne to visit the properties, Deputy McGrath said that the houses are as solid as the Rock of Cashel and would be suitable to any use.
"They’re solid structures, the best I have ever seen, mass concrete walls, ducting for all the wires and all the plumbing. There’s a lot of unanswered questions here, there are many estates around the country likewise that have been built like these houses, and many have been transformed and turned into accommodation.
"The houses are as solid as the Rock of Cashel, and I think it’s a crying shame, an insanity to demolish these houses and cause that carbon footprint,” Deputy McGrath added.
The Minister said he would raise the matter with Housing Minister James Browne and noted that an expanded scheme allowing councils to purchase and refurbish properties would be launched shortly.