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THE SUPREME COURT will hear arguments from Dublin City Council this week for why it should not be forced to pay for the temporary accommodation for all 256 displaced residents of Priory Hall.
The High Court had ordered the local authority to cover the costs while the homeowners were unable to return to their properties but DCC wishes to absolve itself of the responsibility.
The Donaghmede complex was completely evacuated in October 2011 over severe fire safety concerns. No remedial works have been carried out since. The developer Tom McFeely has claimed he cannot afford to fix the defects, while Dublin City Council – which owns 26 of the apartments – believes it should not be responsible for all buildings.
The appeal is due to be heard on Thursday.
The residents’ support group say parents with small children face the prospect of uprooting their families “because the system failed them”.
“As the President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns put it at the time, Dublin City Council had ‘put a torpedo into Priory Hall and the collateral damage was the dislocation of 250 people who lived there’,” the group said in a statement. “He stated that he ‘did not understand how the city council could say they had no responsibility for them’ and that it ‘beggared belief that they could wash their hands of the consequences’.
For the past 18 months Dublin City Council has attempted to do just that and the appeal on 9 May will be the culmination of a year and a half of sleepless nights and a constant limbo for families who cannot plan for their futures.
Residents also criticised Environment Minister Phil Hogan for “sitting on the sidelines” while they are “dragged through the courts again”.
“This Government has turned its back on the entirely blameless families, who were the victims of a building regime that protected developers instead of homeowners and enabled rogue builders to construct death traps like Priory Hall. The local authority failed to do its job and Minister Hogan appears to believe that this failure falls outside his remit.”
Residents have been working with their mortgage lenders and other stakeholders to examine possible solutions but as the resolution process continues, there is some despair about a perceived lack of urgency.
One proposed solution would be for the banks to move home loans from Priory Hall properties to other habitable houses or apartments.
Spokesperson Graham Usher said that would be “certainly something the residents would look at”.
“It is now highly unlikely that anyone will return to Priory Hall,” he told TheJournal.ie. “We need to find a permanent solution as we cannot pay mortgages on homes we cannot live in.”
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So what they’re saying is that the government bailed them out and they’re doing nothing with that money except for hoarding it and loaning to their buddies? What a total shocker. I never saw that coming.
Fair play to ISME for keeping this issue highlighted, many businesses are trying to keep going and even develop on cash flow knowing it is a time consuming and costly waste of time even applying for credit, business is being strangled and bled to death by government inaction on credit and high costs.
SMEs are possibly the worst exploiters of workers in Ireland. They flaunt labour laws, hide behind the likes of ISME and the SFA.
When it comes back buy a safe .
What?
No mention of the 90% of applicants told by bank staff not to bother applying for a loan?
Considering the banks were in such deep denial in 2008 it’s no wonder since the same cronies are still running the shop that they are hording cash. And whilst they continue to keep their bonuses, from the money we bailed them out with – the rest of the SME’s can sink – with us along with them. The business page of the Sunday Indo had the finest example of how the ‘enterprise challenged’ heads of BOI behave, letting a Jemie Jenkins business fold through lack of a credit line backed by letters of credit from his export customers – he had export orders worth thousands in the states for crying out loud! Just shows even when they promote enterprise week in may and dragons den they are apathetic to any economic need – other than the economy of their own pockets! – Pillar bank my ole!
Ye! forgot about that one – dead right Harry, I was one of them !
The banks are protecting themselves at the direct cost, not only to small and medium enterprises but to the whole economy. While this government waffles and dithers about bank interventions, SMEs are being terrorised and ultimately shut down by discredited bailed-out bankers, arrogant at top level and ignorant at branch level. With 96% of business owners of the opinion that Government have either a negative or no impact on SME lending, this Administration must act now and install active management into the banks, representing the owners, the taxpayers, to ensure honest reporting, sustainable reform and a return to proper banking.
http://paydayloansat.com/
Get your friends together and sign a petition. Bring that petition to your local TD’s, tell them that they need to confront the banks…all of the banks in your area, that you expect that your TD will write to the local banking institutions informing them that all of the signatories will take their money out of the bank, close their accounts and refuse to do business with them until they begin to loan to the SME sector again. You get 10 or 15 TD’s involved with that (and many TD’s would be delighted of the photo opportunity and to be seen on the side of the little guy) get some air time and a little public anger going and the threat that deposits might suddenly en masse start walking out the door…watch the little piggies squeal then!!
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