The owners of an unauthorised refugee village insist they have permission for work currently being done on the estate – despite an enforcement order for demolition on part of the site. Photographic evidence obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday in recent weeks shows large tracts of soil and stones being excavated and moved around by an industrial-sized digger. Earlier this year, the MoS revealed how the owners of Kippure Manor Estate in Blessington, Co.
Wicklow, built an entire new development to house asylum seekers without any planning permission. Wicklow County Council subsequently issued an enforcement notice to the owners of the estate and a firm – whose directors have already been paid more than €50m from lucrative State contracts –ordering a halt on ‘unauthorised’ works on the site. The works were carried out a few hundred metres from where 51 houses were built without planning permission.
Asked to explain the work being carried out on the site, the owners of the estate, through high-priced PR firm Murray Consultants, at first declined to comment. But when informed of the photographs showing the work, they changed tack. The PR spokesman then issued a statement: ‘The works being carried out at Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village at present have planning permission.
’ Pressed on the details of that permission, the spokesman repeatedly declined to provide any. No current planning application or active permission was discovered in a search of planning records in Wicklow County Council. A review of historical planning applications on the site did not reveal any obvious permission that the work could be covered by.
Under planning law, permission is granted for five years and expires unless the works being permitted are ‘substantially completed’. While there is no definition of this, the general rule of thumb industry experts use is that buildings are completed to the roof level. If the owners are relying on a historical application, it would therefore be unusual that groundworks would still be exempted.
Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village is a Designated Area of Outstanding Beauty, and according to Wicklow County Council, the estate is also a Special Area of Conservation and Special Protected Area under EU law. This means a series of environmental screenings must be carried out and submitted to the local authority as part of any planning application before work can begin. However, the council confirmed it did not receive any environmental study to allow for the type of ground-clearing works shown in our photos.
It also confirmed that they received no notice of commencement of works on the site, notice that is required under new regulations introduced to help make properties become available for asylum seekers. In a statement to the MoS, the council said: ‘No notification in the form noted above [Class 20F] has been received to date from our records. ‘No Environmental Impact Assessment Report was submitted in respect of the most recent applications received by the Planning Authority to the subject site.
’ Meanwhile, the national planning authority has also become embroiled in a row about building works at the estate. In a Section 5 referral to An Bord Pleanála, the Kippure owners claim extensive works carried out on the site, which Wicklow County Council has already deemed to be illegal, are ‘exempted’ development that do not require planning permission. If the national planning authority rules in favour of the estate owners it could have significant implications for the planning system.
A legal expert told the MoS: ‘A Section 5 referral is used to seek a declaration as to what constitutes “development” – for example, does a fence or a billboard need planning permission? – and also if a structure does constitute “development”, is it exempt from planning permission?’ ‘Section 5 is normally a preliminary issue rather than being used when a problem arises. The situation in Wicklow is significantly and materially different if it is being developed on a greenfield site.’ ‘If An Bord Pleanála rules that work at Kippure is exempted development, then this would be a significant departure in planning law and would set a precedent that builders can develop housing on greenfield sites without going through the planning process if they can say they have entered a contract or lease to provide accommodation to International Protection Applicants.
’ The planning saga at Kippure developed after the local authority initially granted planning permission to replace a 343.5 square-metre building on the estate that was damaged by a fire. This was to be replaced with a larger 528.
9 square-metre structure. However, the property subsequently changed ownership, and by June 2022, when the council first sent a warning letter about alleged planning breaches, four additional structures had been built without permission. When the council sent a second warning letter last January, no fewer than 20 unauthorised structures had allegedly been built on the site.
In May, the council issued the first of two enforcement notices. The first of these was issued on May 10, and by then 51 homes had allegedly been built on the site without permission. At the time, the council ordered that these homes and their foundations be demolished within four months.
Two weeks later, the local authority issued a second enforcement notice, a day after visiting the estate on May 23. The second order no longer referred to ‘alleged’ planning breaches at Kippure. Instead, the council described the refugee village as an ‘unauthorised development’.
The company leasing the property, the investment firm that now owns the estate and its former registered owners were ordered to dismantle 51 houses and their foundations. It gave the companies six months to demolish 20 other structures, including a block plinth attached to the base of approximately 13 houses, a bridge, roadways, a chapel-like building, a canteen and a two-storey educational and residential building. Until recently, the Kippure property was owned by Tondo Limited, a Dublin-based company whose directors are Eoghan Coughlan, 39, and 64-year-old Joe Christle.
Both men are also involved in an investment firm called Quanta Capital, which has €1bn in assets. But documents lodged with the national property register show the estate is now owned by an investment fund called Goldstein Property ICAV. The Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village is leased to Seefin Events Unlimited, whose directors are Sinéad Fennelly, 38, and Carol Dwyer, 56.
Seefin Events was paid €10,444,565 by the Department of Integration to provide accommodation for asylum seekers last year. Ms Fennelly is listed as the company’s sole shareholder. However, she and Ms Dwyer are directors of several other companies that received more than a combined €48.
6m from State accommodation contracts since 2022 up until the end of April this year. The head of the Dáil spending watchdog last night said the Public Accounts Committee will hold further hearings into how the Government is awarding contracts to companies providing accommodation for asylum seekers. Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley called on the Office of Government Procurement to re-examine clauses in contracts to ensure companies are not flouting planning regulations and rules.
He told the MoS: ‘This issue of contracts for the provision of accommodation to International Protection Applicants has been the main issue for PAC and it is likely that we will return to it as an issue. It may require further hearings.’ ‘It’s very important for people to know that companies and corporate bodies are not allowed to run roughshod over national rules that apply to every private citizen if these rules are being flouted.
’ ‘The Office of Government Procurement needs to examine all contracts they award to ensure they are robust enough and if there is a deficiency they need to be strengthened and that needs to be rigidly enforced,’ he said. In response to queries from the MoS, the Department of Integration confirmed it awarded a contract for 447 asylum seekers to be housed at Kippure Manor Estate. A spokesperson said: ‘For all new properties contracted to provide accommodation to people seeking international protection, the Local Authority has a regulatory role in verifying that properties meet the required building, planning and fire safety regulations.
Once all documentation is received from the relevant authorities and verified, a contract can be signed.’ ‘The Department is aware of claims regarding unauthorised buildings and understands the construction work which is the subject of these is separate to that in which the IP [International Protection] applicants are already accommodated.’ They said they could not comment further as an appeal had been lodged.
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