Department cannot overrule council order to stop using listed building as refugee housing

Minister Darragh O'Brien's statement puts him directly at odds with his governmental colleague, the Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, who has to date backed the owner of Ryevale House, Coldec Properties.

The Department of Housing has said it has no power to overrule an enforcement order placed on a listed building being used for the housing of refugees in Co Kildare.

Asked whether there is provision in legislation for such a protected structure to have its stated purpose changed without the need for planning permission, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien deferred to the local authority in question.

In response to a parliamentary question from Social Democrats and local Kildare TD Catherine Murphy, Mr O’Brien added that changing a listed building’s use can only be exempted from the need for planning permission if the structure or any element of same is “not materially” affected by any works carried out.

“I am specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case in which a planning authority or (An Bord Pleanála) may be concerned, except in very specific circumstances, which do not apply in this case,” the minister said.

“This includes any enforcement issue.” 

The minister’s statement puts him directly at odds with his governmental colleague, the Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, who has to date backed the owner of Ryevale House, Coldec Properties, and its insistence that the accommodation of 80 female international protection applicants in the building does not amount to a material change of its use.

The Department of Integration began accommodating refugees at Ryevale on March 31. The building is currently being rented at a cost of €241,000 per month. It comes at a time of tension within the governing coalition over the ongoing requirement to accommodate asylum seekers in the time of an acute housing crisis.

Kildare County Council last week placed the development of Ryevale, a 260-year-old mansion bought by Coldec for €1.6m last year, under an enforcement notice, giving the developer six months to cease the “unauthorised” conversion of the residence to a multi-occupancy building and to restore it to its former guise.

That decision had been well-flagged, given the local authority had twice last March informed Coldec that in its opinion the development could not be exempt from the need for planning permission.

A spokesperson for the Department of Integration said the enforcement proceedings "will be addressed between the provider in Ryevale House and Kildare County Council”.   

"The Department will ensure that the Minister is informed of all developments regarding these proceedings and, in due course, will consider any implications that may arise,” they said

Coldec could not be reached for comment.

Last week, Mr O’Gorman said in a parliamentary question response to Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, prior to the issuance of the local authority’s enforcement notice, that until such an enforcement was issued Ryevale would have to be used for refugee housing given the “very real and immediate pressure” the State accommodation system is currently experiencing.

He said that over 15,000 people had arrived in Ireland seeking accommodation last year while their applications for international protection were being processed, with a further 3,300 arriving to date in 2023.

Last month, Mr O’Gorman expressed his displeasure at the felling of a number of trees on the grounds of Ryevale House by Coldec, the developer insisting at the time that the felling had been actioned for health and safety reasons. The minister said at the time that the felling had not been sanctioned by his department.