Priory Hall residents to march to highlight legal limbo
Almost 250 homeowners and tenants, evacuated by court order from the Dublin apartment complex after it was declared a fire hazard, have been in temporary accommodation in hotels and other rental properties since October.
Dublin City Council, which secured the evacuation order, is trying to get out of paying for the alternative accommodation and an application to that effect will be before the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The council says Tom McFeely, the developer behind the substandard complex, should pay for the accommodation and for repairs to Priory Hall, but he was declared bankrupt in England last month.
Niall O’Reilly, spokesman for the residents, said they were growing increasingly anxious and stressed. “It’s the way it’s dragging on and the uncertainty about what’s ahead that’s so hard,” he said. “We’re still paying the mortgages on our homes in Priory Hall, even though we can’t live in them and probably will never live in them again. If the council stop paying the rent on our temporary accommodation, the mortgage payments will have to take a backseat because none of us can afford both.
“What happens to us then? It’s all very well for Tom McFeely to declare himself bankrupt and start afresh after a year, but we can’t take off to England to do that. And if we were made bankrupt, we’d be affected for life.”
The complex was sealed off last October for remedial works, but they were abandoned after a few weeks when Mr McFeely said he had no money to complete them.
Mr O’Reilly said the condition of the buildings was deteriorating all the time.
The residents have appealed repeatedly to Environment Minister Phil Hogan to meet them but in the last week he refused for a fourth time to do so, saying it would be “inappropriate” while legal proceedings were continuing.
Tomorrow’s march begins at 2pm at Donaghmede Shopping Centre and will carry on to Priory Hall.
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