Employee homes for Kerry business in jeopardy over dispute with council
The Wojs family were the first new owners to move into the Walsh Colour Print employee housing scheme in Castleisland, Co Kerry. Pictured are Marcin, who works as a forklift driver with the firm, his wife Anna, and daughter Ameua. Picture:: Domnick Walsh
An innovative scheme set up by a Co Kerry couple to provide affordable housing for their employees is in jeopardy over a dispute with the local authority. Three homes built by Castleisland-based Tony and Patricia Walsh, of Walsh Colour Print, for their employees, were occupied last year and another 10 are due to be available by next February, but a dispute over a bond for a connected development is now casting doubt on the scheme.
The council is refusing to release a bond of €108,000 which is being held in connection to an adjoining development that was completed in 2008. The couple had an investment in the development of 70 houses but they maintain that the “snag list” which the bond was designed to cover has long been completed and it is now being used to carry out maintenance work in what is a private estate. Tony Walsh says that the employees earmarked for buying the 10 new homes will not be in a position to draw down a mortgage, as the banks will refuse to do so while the issue of the bond is outstanding.
“It’s unbelievable that this is happening,” he says. “We started something unique here, particularly as we’re in the middle of a housing crisis.
"We are very disappointed with the negative attitude of the council, they are being in no way helpful to what we are trying to do. We tried to fix this, the bond for the other development should not be holding this up but they didn’t want to know.”
Mr Walsh was part of a consortium that built the development on the same plot of land that houses his homes for employees. The development was completed in 2008, but the council is refusing to release the bond. Mr Walsh says that he asked for a final “snag list” in 2014 but this was not forthcoming. Until the matter is resolved he is refusing to lodge the full value of another bond required by the council for the homes he is building for his employees.
A spokesperson for the council said that it “is currently engaged in ongoing discussions with the developer in this instance and it would not, therefore, be appropriate to comment publicly on that engagement.”
The innovative scheme set up by the couple in 2017 received widespread publicity when the first new owners moved in last December. The homes are energy A rated with air to water heating and are sold on to the company’s employees for a cost price of €150,000. This was the price that Tony and Patricia Walsh set four years ago when the project began. The only stipulation is that the employees pledge to remain with Walsh Colour Printing for 10 years. After that, they are free to sell on the homes if they so wish. In the current market, that would in all likelihood yield a considerable profit, but those who are buying now are doing so in order to set down roots and make a home for their families.
The first new owners were forklift driver Marcin Wojs and his wife and daughter. The family had been looking for a home to buy in the area for 16 years but were continually priced out of the market.
“Since the first homes were occupied I’ve had at least 10 calls from people with businesses who were inquiring about it because they would like to do something similar,” Tony Walsh says.
“Like ourselves, many of them have trouble holding onto people simply because it is next to impossible to buy a home for many and they would like to do something about it, especially in the middle of a housing crisis. Benefit-in-kind, which the employees would be liable for, is another issue that was brought up with me. Surely it’s not asking too much for the authorities to do their own bit and resolve problems like these when things are being done to house people as best we can.”
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