Doctor feels ‘bullied and victimised’ after council payoff of €3m

AN eye specialist who was forced out of her surgery to make way for a new road has received €3 million — four times the initial value of the building — in compensation for her move.

Carlow eye expert Dr Mona McGarry left her contact lens consultants building on the Athy Road in Carlow town for the last time yesterday after the local authority compulsorily purchased the surgery. It was valued at €750,000 in December 2004.

Dr McGarry was paid €3m for the property after an arbitrator adjudicated on her case. The land was required to make way for a road from the Athy Road to the River Barry, opening it up for a town-centre development.

Dr McGarry, who has worked from the building for 26 years, said she felt she was “bullied and victimised”. And she said a more realistic valuation on the building would be €2m, but the money was not an issue for her.

“I do not have any other alternative place from where to work. I was working from this building for 26 years. The site was perfect. A lot of my clients would have visual impairments and they knew their way around.

“There was plenty of parking and it was a central, accessible site. It was easy for the council to say it was worth €750,000. They could have said it was worth sixpence. I have been fighting this decision every way possible and now have no facility from where to run my practice,” she said.

“I feel I have been bullied and victimised by what is supposed to be ‘due process’. I am just an individual, a woman on her own. I didn’t get due process.”

Carlow Town Council said last night that Dr McGarry was paid 3m following an arbitration hearing heard in July.

“The council has acted properly through all the statutory procedures and has complied fully with the terms of the High Court settlement.

“Dr McGarry has been generously compensated for her property and had years of notice of the council’s intentions,” the council added in a statement.