We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THE HIGH COURT has found that consultant engineers and Limerick County Council were responsible for the wrongful demolition of a family home during the construction of a new dual carriageway between Limerick and Nenagh.
Brian and Mary O’Shaughnessy described the destruction of their single-storey two-bedroom old Irish farmhouse ‘The Hollows’ at Annaholty, Birdhill, Co Tipperary on 6 September 2006 as “a nightmare”. The site was never used for the new road.
Giving judgement, Mr Justice Donald Binchy, who said it was “abundantly clear” what happened “was not down to any single act”, found the consultant engineers, a joint venture called RPS Scetauroute, was 70% responsible while the local authority was 30% responsible.
A third party which carried out the actual demolition was found not to be negligent in the matter.
The O’Shaughnessys sought damages for alleged negligence from several parties including Limerick County Council and The National Roads Authority (NRA), who it was claimed were both responsible for the operation, design and acquisition of land, and oversaw construction of the N7 dual carriageway scheme.
They also sued RPS Consulting Engineers Ltd and EGIS Route Scetauroute SA (a joint venture in the name of RPS Scetauroute JV), which was contracted by Limerick County Council (LCC) to carry out certain works on the carriageway, and Midland Fencing Ltd, a subcontractor that carried out the demolition works.
The defendants all denied negligence. LCC, NRA, RPS, and Midland all served each other with notices of contribution and indemnity, claiming the other defendants were responsible for what happened.
Last January the O’Shaughnessy’s settled their action on undisclosed terms. The hearing proceeded to determine which of the defendants was liable.
A series of errors
In his judgement, the Judge said the demolition was “as a consequence of a series of acts and omissions in which both LCC and RPS play a part.”
The events leading to the demolition included an engineer for RPS, following consultations with LCC, wrongly designating a plot of land, 156a – which was acquired, as being derelict. There was no structure on the plot, but there may have been in the past.
LCC’s staff, when looking for a plot of land that matched that description then mistakenly photographed and labelled the O’Shaughnessy’s home as being plot 156a.
In early 2006, LCC included plot 156a on a list of properties to be demolished. LCC then provided RPS with the list, including a photograph of the O’Shaughnessy’s home describing it as plot 156a.
The judge said there was also a failure by engineers to query why works were being carried out on the house, and a lack of familiarity with the boundaries of the site the subject of a CPO.
He said he was satisfied RPS and LCC owed a duty of care to the O’Shaughnessys, and it went without saying that their home should not have been demolished.
In his view, RPS failed in its duty under the terms of its contract to provide services to LCC. RPS failed to supervise the site properly or ensure the resident engineers were sufficiently familiar with the site, or check that the premises shown in the photograph it was given was at plot 156a.
However, the judge added that there could be no doubt that LCC was also negligent in instructing RPS to include plot 156a in the demolition contract, incorrectly identifying plot 156a as being the O’Shaughnessy’s property, or ensuring its staff were familiar with site boundaries and project documentation.
Shared responsibility
In the circumstances, he said RPS were 70% negligent, and LCC 30% negligent.
The O’Shaughnessys, bought the house for IR£34,500 in 1998. They lived there for a period and also rented it out. It was always their intention to reside there permanently.
Between 2001 to 2003, there was uncertainty about the house because it was close to the route of the new carriageway. The O’Shaughnessy’s were informed by the NRA in 2003 their home was not required in order to complete the project. Other houses in Annaholty were acquired and demolished as part of the construction works.
In the months before the demolition Brian O’Shaughnessy was carrying out preparatory works as part of plans to renovate the house. Planning permission was also sought from the local authority.
By late August 2006, slates on the roof and furniture in the house were removed. On 6 September 2006 Mary O’Shaughnessy decided to collect post at the house. When she arrived at Annaholty the house was gone, and the site cleared.
They had no prior indication or notice that the house was to be demolished.
She initially believed matters would be sorted out by Christmas of that year, and never thought she would have to come to court. What had happened to her and her husband as a “nightmare”, she said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Nine years to get it to court? Bit of a joke tbf
It gives time for the interest to build up in order to pay compo
Well that’s it, if they’d lost they were financially ruined and I’d imagine many people would be in fear to take that chance
Not if your DOB!!!he gets days
Con Sultans – as one lad called them !
If all the Legal Teams were on a fixed fee of say 3000 euro you can be absolutely sure this would have been settled in one week. 9 years writing letters forward and backwards building up fees is the problem, it wouldn’t surprise me if LCC lawyers got paid more than the 30% LCC paid to the poor couple who lost their house
Jesus. This country.
Jasus it is awful you go to you house to collect the post and there it was GONE
Cowboys Ted!!
That the courts took so long as well. Defer and deny. So that the pr i cks involved could retire.
The state is bent.
Limerick County Council, a great bunch of lads.
I think the compo has already been agreed in an undisclosed settlement. This case was to apportion liability amongst the parties but will not affect the final amount paid. I could read the article again to be sure but quite frankly, couldn’t be arsed. Was difficult enough to trudge through it the first time.
RPS…. Poolbeg Incinerator, Irish Water……..and then they knocked someones gaff down.
Someone’s getting a promotion.
You should check out these houses in China.
Check out these houses in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDeS_mXMnM
What do ye expect down the bog another true story for the comedians.
down the bog ????
Ce ? – as Manuel used to say
Denise and yet another idiotic comment.
Hahaha can’t help but laugh. Goes to pick up the post and the house is gone. If only a camera had registered the look on their face haha
Tough situation but nobody died………..
Find the local authority people who were responsible for this, promote them (with a nice pay increase of course) or give them ‘early retirement’ with a ‘generous’ pension. Under no circumstances must anyone carry the can for it. Ireland, the best little country to make a balls-up in.
*demolished
Not surprising!
One word……wilfully!
I am not surprised!
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Non-TCF/GVL Vendors
have your say