Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, family told

No insurer can be expected to accommodate a family indefinitely in “extraordinarily expensive” accommodation in Dublin’s five-star Four Seasons Hotel until their flood-damaged home is repaired, a High Court judge has said.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the Commercial Court said Ann Marie Glennon Cully and her children Zane and Zara — who are living in a one-bedroom apartment attached to the hotel — might consider “reducing their standard of living” to “more modest accommodation.”

He described as “very reasonable” an offer by insurer Axa to pay €645,000 towards reinstating their “effectively derelict” home at Victoria House, St John’s Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4, and funding alternative accommodation until works were complete.