Couple Ordered to Demolish House - any update?

I would safely say that within my lifetime this is the most gratifying use of my tax money that I've ever seen.

Call it schadenfreude if you like, but I'm loving it.

I honestly don't know what you are on about. The council did not happen across this house in the course of their planning compliance checks. As another poster said, maybe they should have checked the location of a refused planning decision on the grounds of a sanitisation clause on the land? Planning sections often claim a lack of resources to initiate the compliance checks and therefore rely on complaints.

Yes, they pursued the complaint because they have to. Again, what if no complaint was made? Would they have inspected the site ? We won't know, but something tells me that they never would have.

Moreso it's a reflection of a mentality, mostly rurally, that reporting anyone to the authorities for illegal behavior is a no no.

A member of the public did complain. Given the location, it was most likely a neighbour. Local people do follow planning applications and would have known planning was refused.

What has “up in Dublin” got to do with it?
It’s a local authority issue.

I’d be very skeptical of the apparent support they are claiming to have.

When you experience joy at seeing a family home demolished, you have made some terrible life decisions to make you so bitter.

Planning decisions are often inconsistent and contridictrty at best, all of which are dangerous precedents.

Hopefully this media spectacle will drive much needed improvements in the planning system which is a major contributor to the current housing crisis.

You can have the best planning rules in the world but they don't mean anything if the likes of the Murrays just ignore them and the multiple court losses!

What are his legal costs ? High court & then Supreme court, I wouldn't like to be his solicitor either. Plumbing game must pay very well.

Oddly enough I agree with you that the planning system is in need of a bit of an overhaul but that's as far as agreement goes. I didn't see a family home built on that site but rather an unauthorised structure built by (and I'm being nice here) a very stubborn couple who manipulated and abused every aspect of planning laws and legal processes in this little country of ours. So yes the planning system needs updating so as to prevent these type of people from ever laying 2 blocks together without the proper permission.

I worked as a local authority planner for 8 years.

Planning is only half the equation. The Councils also have an enforcement function under the building control legislation, which is written to include inspection, intervention and injunction.

This illegal build should never have got to the stage of being complete. It should have been shut down in the site clearance and groundworks phase.

But, unfortunately, Building Control is not nearly well enough funded in the local authority system, and so we end up with illegal development and also legacy issues like schools and apartment buildings with insufficient fire protection, and mineral contamination in the construction industry, such as mica and pyrite.

More money spent up front on robust building control and systemic regulation could stop much of this crap long before it becomes a costly legal headache for the taxpayer.

Here's the next one to watch - the Sutton extension, built 6 years ago, and must be demolished in the next few months. Long-running dispute with the council here too.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2026/03/02/owner-of-dublin-home-given-eight-months-to-demolish-extension/

I heard she'll be having a bucket collection at the top of the road.

The Facebook mob are gas, they're the very ones that complain about the rich and how corrupt ireland is and brown envelopes blah blah blah but if the couple had won a last minute appeal to stop the demolition they'd all be up in arms about how its a corrupt system and only the rich can get away with building a house without planning etc etc. They seem to have a very healthy respect for people whom they see as flouting rules and going against the system but also seem ro hate it when someone successful does something they think is wrong and calls it corruption

They're just morons who want to give out about the government and authority in all forms. They're blind to the fact one rants contracticts the next.