Homeless Dublin man to get €4,500

The directors of a €1.5m trust fund have been told by a court to pay out €4,500 to a homeless man to give him shelter over Christmas and the New Year.

Declan Heffernan had on Monday last asked Judge Jacqueline Linnane for the payout from the trust fund left between him and his sister Carolyn Heffernan by their late mother.

Barrister Rudi Neuman Shanahan had told the court Mr Heffernan had faced living on the streets of Dublin during the bitter winter months.

Judge Linnane said yesterday that the money would have to be paid to Heffernan’s solicitor Colm Doherty of CN Doherty and Co. She ordered that Mr Doherty would make payments out directly to hostels or night shelters to cover Mr Heffernan’s accommodation only.

The judge had heard on Monday that Mr Heffernan’s former home at 29, Kincora Rd, Clontarf, Dublin 3, had been badly damaged by fire and he had since been living in an outhouse attached to the premises.

Mr Neuman Shanahan told the court that an insurance company had paid the trustees €100,000 compensation after the fire but No 29 had not been made habitable again.

He said that the cash remained in the trust which also covered a second property that was currently being rented out with payments being made into the trust.

Dermot Francis Sheehan, counsel for trustees Michael J Kennedy solicitor and Carolyn Heffernan, a retired solicitor and sister of Mr Heffernan, of Castle Avenue, Clontarf, said the trustees had taken proceedings to wind up the trust and seek an injunction restraining Mr Heffernan from living there.

On Monday, Mr Heffernan gave the court an undertaking on oath that he would not go near the now boarded-up No 29.