Council urged to seek ‘top dollar’ for houses from IRFU

LIMERICK City Council has been urged to get a ‘top dollar’ price for three houses it owns at Knockalisheen Road, which the IRFU intend to purchase for the development of Thomond Park.

The houses, part of the 16-house terrace adjacent to Thomond Park, are required by the rugby authorities for the €40 million development of the sports venue.

The IRFU have already purchased the other 13 houses, which were occupier owned. The council is moving to transfer tenants in the three houses it owns to alternative accommodation in the area.

It is believed the IRFU paid in excess of €350,000 each for the other houses on the terrace.

Cllr John Gilligan, at the monthly council meeting, called for the local authority to ensure that it gets equally favourable deals for the three houses it owns.

He said: “The IRFU bought the other houses at grossly inflated prices and I assume when we sell, there will be equally generous settlements.”

Cllr Gilligan said some of the profit from the sale of the three council houses should be used to ensure that the tenants who will have to move out will not be out of pocket in fitting out their replacement homes.

The council has issued notices to quit to the tenants in the three houses, after months of talks have failed to resolve a move to alternative council houses in the same general area.

Former mayor, Cllr John Cronin strongly criticised council management for embarking on the legal route by issuing notices to quit.

He said: “These people have been good council tenants for decades and it is not right to issue them with notices to quit. It is time to handle this properly and sit down and get the IRFU involved, because they are part of the problem.

“It is better to sit down because this won’t be sorted out in a courthouse by asking a judge to evict people who have been good tenants for 20 and 30 years. No judge will do it.”

Director of housing, Pat Dowling said discussions with the tenants in the three houses No’s 14, 18 and 22 Knockalisheen Road, had been going on since last March.

Mr Dowling said: “There have been extensive negotiations since then and we have made extensive efforts to accommodate these tenants in suitable accommodation. Despite those efforts, it has not been possible to resolve the problem by agreement.”

He said the tenants would be relocated in houses close to Knockalisheen Road and the houses they will be moved to have been modernised to a very high standard.