€75,000 to quit estate sold to charity by Nama

A proposal to increase the compensation to homeowners after Nama sold the majority of their estate for social housing has been shot down by the Department of the Environment.

Residents of the Oakley Wood estate in Tullow, Co Carlow, have been told there will be no increase to a €75,000 buyout offer tabled by Respond, a voluntary housing association, if they wish to move.

Respond recently spent €2.5m to buy 55 homes in the estate from Nama, with funding from the department, valuing each house at just over €45,000. It is a pilot scheme that will be used for 47 other unfinished estates across the country.