Families face eviction after investment fund opts to sell off Killarney homes

Thirteen children of the families affected attend the Scoil Bhríde Loreto National School

A Cypriot-registered company told the families in June they have six months to leave their homes in the former convent grounds beside the local national school. File photo

Up to 14 families are facing eviction from their homes in a Killarney housing estate due to a decision by an investment fund to sell the properties.

A Dublin-based management company started issuing notices on behalf of the Cypriot-registered company to the families in June telling them they have six months to leave their homes in the former convent grounds beside the local national school.

The houses concerned were purchased by the investment fund in 2019. The notices give reasons for the evictions including selling the property, ending the existing tenancy agreements.

The residents have now started an online petition and contacted TDs and councillors in the hope the council will purchase them. They are seeking a tenant in situ purchase or approved housing body partnership or “any other mechanism”.

“I hope we’ll be able to achieve something here, not only on behalf of Killarney, but on behalf of people all around the country,” one of the residents, Dorota Kowalcyzk, said.

She is among 34 residents who have received the eviction notices. The community is close knit and all the households know each other. The families are from Ireland, eastern Europe and other countries and many work in hospitality, financial services and manufacturing.

“Most of us are probably going to move to different countries and start from zero,” Ms Kowlalcyzk said. They will have to leave Ireland because there is no place to live. 

She said:
It is scary. We have sleepless nights.

The impact on their children is what worries them most, Ms Kowlalcyzk said. As a parent, people feel they have failed their own children because they can’t provide for them the most important thing of all, a stable home, she said.

Thirteen children of the families affected attend the nearby school.

Brian O'Sullivan, principal of the 130-pupil Scoil Bhríde Loreto National School has appealed for “all necessary measures” to be considered to allow the families to remain in their homes and prevent up to 10% of the school population being forced to leave.

He has asked for intervention by politicians and others to “explore all possible measures to allow them to remain in their homes and within our community".

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“It will have a huge impact on the entire community,” he told Radio Kerry. The town and local economy will also suffer.

The children themselves, as well as the friends they will have to part from, will all be impacted. He said the parents are very involved in the school as well.

“These are hard-working families who have lived in the estate for many years and who contribute greatly to both our local community and our school,” Mr O’Sullivan wrote to local councillors this week.