'It was enough to knock the stuffing out of you': What it's like to be on the end of a CPO

What exactly are CPOs and what are the efforts to modernise and reform the laws around them? Tadgh McNally talks to people impacted by CPOs for the Cork Luas and a bypass in Co Meath

Kate Tierney, owner of The Venue Bar in Ballintemple which is situated on the proposed Cork Luas line and is under a Compulsory Purchase Order by Cork City Council. Picture: Noel Sweeney

There are three words which can frighten the life out of any landowner in the State.

Compulsory Purchase Order, or CPO.

It is one of the many tools in the wider arsenal of the State and its agencies to deliver in areas like infrastructure, whereby a piece of land or a property can be bought by the State without requiring the consent of the owner.

It’s a long-standing process, with the foundations of CPOs having emerged through legislation originally passed in 1845 and 1919.

When you’re thinking about CPOs, it can often boil down to two separate powers: CPO for infrastructure development and CPO for housing.

The latter is often used for things like buying up empty, vacant and derelict properties across cities, towns and villages, with councils using the powers in a bid to clear up eyesores.

It is something that has been strongly encouraged by central Government, with the Department of Housing keeping tabs on the number of CPOs issued each month.

It isn’t always plain sailing, with struggles to reach out to owners of sites and the potential high costs of restoring crumbling buildings acting as pitfalls in the road.

It led to the Government developing a CPO activation programme, where local authorities can identify vacant and derelict sites and seek to bring them into use.

It allows the council to first find and engage with the landowner, offering support to bring the sites back into use. Where they can’t be found, the council can use its existing powers to acquire the land compulsorily.

While thousands of properties are identified and entered into the programme each year, the numbers which progress towards CPO are much smaller.

For example, there were 5,791 properties added to the programme in 2025, but the CPO process only began on 169 in the same year.

It is a low number, with the Government more keen to get people to renovate and restore properties themselves rather than having the State step in.

CPO for infrastructure

The other form of CPO is where a lot more issues can crop up, such as when the State is developing a large piece of infrastructure, and there is a requirement to CPO land or property; it’s often done to more than one person.

It can involve buying parcels of land in the countryside to facilitate a new bypass or acquiring parts of people’s gardens to allow cycle lanes or bus corridors to be developed in towns and cities.

Áine O’Brien, a solicitor with law firm RDJ, says CPO action usually arises when land must be acquired for a wider community benefit.

Remedies are available for those impacted by the acquisition order, whether that be through challenges within the courts or via compensation.

Some CPO cases have reached the headlines in recent months and years, including issues in Kerry surrounding the development of a greenway, leading to disputes with farmers over land acquisition.

In particular, the Cork Luas project has received attention for the use of CPO when it moves towards construction, with people’s gardens, Bishopstown GAA Club, Highfield Rugby Club, and The Venue Bar all set to be impacted.

The Venue Bar owner Kate Tierney says it had been 'a shock' to her and her partner Con Dennehy when they were first made aware of the CPO. Picture: Noel Sweeney

The latter will be demolished outright, with owner Kate Tierney saying it had been “a shock” to her and her partner Con Dennehy when they were first made aware.

Ms Tierney said they received a text from a friend, who sent them the map of the Cork Luas route which was “showing the train going through our building”.

Ms Tierney said:

The shock of that was enough to knock the stuffing out of the pair of us.

Since receiving confirmation that the pub was part of the preferred route for Cork Luas, Ms Tierney said they have received no communications from Transport Infrastructure Ireland about a CPO.

“We were considering our options before this happened,” Ms Tierney said, saying they had considered selling or leasing the property.

“We’ve gone to auctioneers to see if it's possible to sell and a couple said, ‘well, not really because there’s a CPO, so you can’t put a value on your building now’.

“Who’d want to buy a building if they don’t know it’s going to be there in a year or two years… It puts you in a deep hole, you don’t know where you are.” 

Ms Tierney said some form of legal action against the CPO is on the table, saying it is an option for them “because it’s pretty unfair to us, at our age, to have us in that sort of quagmire”.

Kate Tierney said: 'We’ve gone to auctioneers to see if it's possible to sell and a couple said, ‘well, not really because there’s a CPO, so you can’t put a value on your building now’.' Picture: Noel Sweeney

On possible compensation for people impacted by CPOs, Ms O’Brien said the “common misunderstanding” is that whoever is buying the land or property decides the price.

This is done through a compensation request from whoever is impacted, before the arm of the State returns with their offer.

“If you and the authority cannot reach agreement on the figure, you can apply to have an independent property arbitrator decide the dispute,” solicitor Áine O’Brien said.

Ms O’Brien said cases can last for a “considerable number of years”.

“The process of making and confirming the CPO itself is designed to move relatively quickly, since it is governed by strict statutory deadlines,” Ms O’Brien said.

These timelines include six weeks for a CPO to be submitted after notification, 12 weeks to publish and serve a notice once it is confirmed. 

Finally, there is an 18-month timeframe for authorities to submit a formal invitation to landowners to seek compensation for the transaction.

“In practice, though, the process will often take longer than the statutory timelines would suggest,” she said, highlighting requirements for oral hearings if objections to the CPO are raised, or if a judicial review against the CPO is taken.

“If there is no objection, or your objection is straightforward and quickly resolved, you can generally expect the CPO to be confirmed and completed roughly within the statutory timeframes.

“However, where there is a contested oral hearing followed by a High Court judicial review, the whole process, including any resulting delay or cancellation of the order, could take several years.” 

CPO reform

There have been some attempts to reform the CPO process, with Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan introducing legislation in 2025 to introduce statutory timelines and provide those who have their land bought with advance payment.

The Dublin Bay South TD has argued the existing system for CPOs is fragmented, outdated, and overly complex.

His legislation stems from the 2023 report by the Law Reform Commission, which recommended major changes to be made to the CPO process, particularly around land acquisition and early payment.

Mr Geoghegan said he believed local authorities and other agencies should be empowered to pay impacted landowners upfront, rather than waiting for the end of the process.

“There isn't really much of a carrot approach in terms of a property owner or a landowner to be incentivised to voluntarily participate in the process, so it doesn't get marred in legal challenge,” Mr Geoghegan said.

I think typically people think of CPOs as sort of a kind of an unjust attack on somebody's property rights, whereas actually in a modern CPO system, it's about working with the landowner, providing the funds upfront, so that you can actually get infrastructure delivered.

While the legislation is on the Dáil's order paper, the nature of Leinster House means Mr Geoghegan’s private members' bill will only progress if selected as part of the weekly bill lottery.

But he says the Government is moving into a new space on issues like CPO, with commitments for reform within the Programme for Government.

With changes like early payment and more proactive engagement, CPOs might become more palatable for impacted land and property owners.

CPOs of vacant properties

There were 16 vacant properties compulsorily acquired by Cork’s two local authorities over a two-year period, figures show.

Some 11,950 properties were identified by local councils across the country as vacant or derelict in 2024 and 2025, with 5,719 of those identified last year.

While thousands of properties have been added to the Government’s CPO activation programme, a much smaller number end up being bought up by local authorities.

In 2025, there were 138 properties bought by local councils, while CPOs were refused on 19 vacant or derelict properties. A further 26 CPOs were withdrawn.

Meanwhile, seven local authorities did not complete any CPOs of vacant or derelict properties last year, including Cavan, Donegal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Wicklow.

Conversely, there were seven local authorities who completed CPO acquisitions into the double digits, including Clare, Kilkenny, Monaghan and Waterford.

In Cork City, there were five CPOs completed, with three in Cork County. In 2024, the local authorities were swapped, with Cork City completing three and Cork County completing five.

According to the Department of Housing, there were 169 CPOs commenced in 2025.

In a parliamentary question response earlier this year, housing minister James Browne said local councils can engage with property owners to bring the homes back into use before they are able to use legislative powers to compulsorily acquire houses.

Other measures available to tackle dereliction include the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, which provides up to €50,000 in grant funding to renovate a vacant house. A further €20,000 top-up is available for renovations of derelict properties.

It comes as the Government is preparing to introduce a new derelict property tax, which will be collected by the Revenue Commissioners rather than by local authorities. The tax will be charged at a rate of 7% of the property’s market value.

There will be a requirement for local councils to draw up lists of derelict buildings in their areas to provide to Revenue from January. The tax will come into effect shortly thereafter.

The Julianstown bypass

In one village in Co Meath, concerns about traffic are high on the agenda.

Julianstown has been choked with traffic for years, with a town of less than 1,000 people seeing an average of 21,200 cars pass through it on a daily basis.

Research published by Meath County Council has found it is the most traffic-choked town of its size in the county, with the next closest comparison being Mountcharles in Co Donegal — where 11,600 cars pass through daily.

In the past, the R132 had been the main route for commuters travelling to Dublin from towns like Dundalk and Drogheda, with relief arriving on the opening of parts of the M1 in 2001.

But traffic remains a significant problem, with the local authority pointing to the high volume of HGVs as a particular issue.

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Seeking to solve the problem, Meath County Council has proposed developing a relief scheme, which would see a bypass built around the village to lessen the through traffic.

But, inevitably, given the fact that any new road will go through landowners' holdings, there will be some form of compulsory purchase order (CPO) required.

This is slightly further down the road, however, with the local council yet to decide its preferred route, but four possible options are on the table.

This includes a shorter road to the immediate west of the town, off the R132 and back on, while other longer routes go through more land and get closer to the M1 Drogheda Bypass.

Opposition

While the plan has been welcomed as a win in parts of Julianstown, some local landowners have come out in opposition to the plan.

This includes Anne Dowling, who chairs the local campaign in opposition to the bypass, who has land holdings in the area which could be impacted by a road built in the area.

Ms Dowling said the proposals by the council would “destroy the community”, suggesting that any bypass would divide the town physically and “from an emotional and community sense”.

“Our fear is that if they go ahead with this proposed route and they go to CPOs and we have to fight all that, it’s not going to solve the problem because in 10 years, the traffic is going to be worse, and we’re going to be back here all over again,” Ms Dowling said.

Ms Dowling questioned why the council had not opted to send the route to the east of the village, or to have a direct link to the M1. She said a road would “cut what we’ve left of the main farm into little pieces”, adding there would be “nothing left”.

Ms Dowling said the mission of the campaign is to “get a no vote” to the proposal and stop them announcing a preferred route for the bypass.

Approval

However, a campaign has also emerged in favour of the bypass, with solicitor and local resident Fred Logue chairing.

Mr Logue, an environmental solicitor, says there is a need for immediate traffic relief in the village, pointing to the over 22,000 cars and trucks which pass through it on a regular basis.

“It’s hard to describe how bad it is because it's just so, so much traffic,” he said.

Mr Logue said he empathised with impacted landowners, and they were “perfectly entitled” to lodge objections, adding that if he was impacted by the proposed routes, he’d “be worried about my land and my property”.

“That’s not a reason to abandon the project. The process is there to deal with those kinds of disputes and issues,” Mr Logue said.

Fred Logue: 'They can’t derail this project just because they don’t want it.' File photo: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

“We respect them, the objectors and their views and understand them and we empathise with them. They can’t derail this project just because they don’t want it.” 

Mr Logue said the CPO process is to work out issues and to reach a “public interest result”.

“The CPO process then is to compensate people whose property is needed in the public interest to build infrastructure like this. It’s something that happens up and down the country every day of the week.” 

He said there are some “scare stories” doing the rounds, with suggestions that houses will be demolished or graveyards will be built over.

“I suspect that once the route is announced, they will try and minimise the impact. There won’t be CPOs unless they’re absolutely necessary. They certainly won’t build over a working graveyard.”