Department to pay damages to woman after resolving Dingle car park ownership row

The department is to be registered as owner of the lands, and damages -  understood to be substantial - will be paid to Anne Coles. Photo: Domnick Walsh

A portion of Dingle's main tourist car park operated by Kerry County Council under licence from the Department of the Marine was never owned by the State, and has always been privately owned, a court was told this morning. 

The car park, which fronts Dingle's popular Marina, had earned the council an average income of €150,000 a year. The Circuit Civil Court in Killarney heard that terms have now been agreed between the plaintiff and registered landowner Anne Coles, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, after the case was heard for a number of hours.

The department is to be registered as owner of the lands, and damages -  understood to be substantial - will be paid to Ms Coles.

Ms Coles, of Cloghane, Castlegregory, had sued both the department and Kerry County Council. She inherited the property on the main Dingle to Slea Head road from her uncle in 2000 after his death in 1994.

In 2001, 2002 and again in 2003 Ms Coles had sought to bring her ownership of the land to the council's attention, but nothing happened. In 2013, the council carried out improvement works, including erecting barrier entrances and tarmacadam of what had previously been a paid car park on rough ground. 

A representative for Ms Coles again wrote to the council asserting her ownership. She also approached a TD who wrote to the Department of the Marine, but nothing happened.

Issue was 'reinvigorated' in 2015

Matters came to a head in 2015 when Ms Coles applied for and was granted planning by Kerry County Council for change of use on part of her property on the other side of the road in Dingle from a house to a restaurant. “It was granted with the provision that I should pay fees of €60,000  to include a parking charge,” Ms Coles said.

That “reinvigorated the issue”, she agreed with her barrister Elizabeth Murphy.

She approached Killorglin solicitor, Paul O'Donoghue, in 2016 and he wrote to the council, asserting Ms Coles' ownership and asking the council to desist from using it as a car park. The council responded by saying they were in discussion with the Department of the Marine.

An equity civil bill seeking injunctions and damages was issued against both defendants in 2019.

The portion of land in Anne Coles' folio amounted to 23 car park spaces, and potentially 35 spaces on redesign, engineer Damien Murphy, for Ms Coles, said. Her folio represented 12.3% of the car park land.

Since 2013, the council earned an average of €150,000 a year in income from the entire car park, which has a total of 170 car spaces, as well as bus spaces, and car charging points, the court heard. The car park earnings had been obtained from the council on foot of a motion for discovery by Ms Cole’s solicitor Mr O'Donoghue, the court heard.

Question of damages

The value of a car park space in Kerry based on the sale of a site in Tralee Town Centre and on council levies in planning matters was around €6,000, the court heard from auctioneer Michael O’Sullivan, witness for the plaintiff.

The court had the power, if they found for Ms Coles, to order the council to take down structures, dig up the tarmacadam, and return the property to Ms Coles, Ms Murphy barrister, said at one point. In lieu of this, the question of damages arose, the barrister said.

The department had built the tourist marina in the surrounding area in the late 80s and early 1990s and this was now “a tourist magnet”, Ms Murphy said. At one point the judge, Judge Terence O’Sullivan, remarked the council were in the clear and had done nothing wrong.

The matter was settled after lunch.

Ms Murphy informed the court the parties had agreed terms and an order to register the Minister for Agriculture and the Marine as registered owners of the lands, as well as an order for costs against the Department and payment of damages by the department, were being sought.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan said it had been “a long and complicated case” and had been clearly presented by all sides. The council is to bear its own legal costs as is the department.