In the ruling, as reported by the Irish Times<\/a>, Judge Richard Humphreys said that the developers had shown \u201calmost unbelievable chutzpah\u201d in building the homes.<\/p>\nHe further criticised the developers for continuing construction of the site \u201cin the teeth of interventions\u201d from the local authority and residents.<\/p>\n
Instead, they had \u201cstood on the accelerator through those flashing red lights, in the hope of creating a fait accompli before they were brought to a halt\u201d by authorities.\n<\/p>\n
Hillsbrook community<\/p>\n
An unusual feature of Chianti Park is that, aside from hosting a trailer park of caravans for several years, it is also neighboured by a long-established cluster of mobile homes and chalets at a site called Hillsbrook.<\/p>\n
Hillsbrook, which was first established in the 1960s, is now home to around 10 families, who are a mix of Irish, Eastern European and other nationalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would not be a romantic TikTok video,\u201d one resident said of the scrapped plans to move new people in, arguing that the hilltop community faces all four seasons of Irish weather, including tough winds and heavy snow.<\/p>\n
It was outlined that while people who have been living long-term in Hillsbrook are comfortable with the \u201coff-the-grid\u201d way of life there, it may not be as suitable for people on the housing waiting list in south Dublin who may require or expect more local services.<\/p>\n
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\n A lane cutting through Hillsbrook The Journal<\/p>\n
The Journal\n<\/p>\n
Each resident spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Several people The Journal spoke to expressed a strong belief that the new Chianti Park homes may well have been used for the government\u2019s International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) to house asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
In a statement to local politicians last year, this claim was strongly rejected as \u201centirely false\u201d by Branach Developments.<\/p>\n
The developer said that the current works were focused solely on replacing outdated mobile and chalet units with \u201cmodern, A-rated modular homes for existing residents and future private renters\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
A number of residents pointed to company filings, also seen by The Journal, showing that the site owners \u2013 Richie and David McDermott of Mullnassa Limited and Threshford Limited \u2013 both hold directorships at companies that house people at Ipas accommodation.<\/p>\n
Responses from developer and site owners<\/p>\n
Branach developer Byrne told The Journal that as the \u201cland has been in use as residential for 60 years\u201d, he personally believes the site owners should have been allowed to apply for retention planning permission from the council.<\/p>\n
If that were to be refused, then Byrne accepted that the owners should \u201cproceed as per the High Court judgement\u201d in June deciding for demolishment.<\/p>\n
When contacted, the McDermotts \u2013 who own the site through Mullnassa Limited and Threshford Limited \u2013 did not respond in time for publication.<\/p>\n
The McDermotts have told the Irish Times that they would be complying with the order from the courts, but that they had also offered the modular homes to South Dublin County Council free of charge following the court case.<\/p>\n
The local council has not commented on the case publicly following the court case\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n
Views of Hillsbrook residents<\/p>\n
One woman said that she wants to help homeless people and asylum seekers but questioned the suitability of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to help, but to help people we have to know how to help \u2013 because if we moved people in here, then they would be happy for the first month but they would be crying for every month after, about the standards, about the location,\u201d this woman told us.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy adding almost 30 houses over there you\u2019re adding new problems to here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"IMG_1517\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787104451_398_.jpeg\")
\n A view of some of the Chianti Park homes through the entrance gate. The Journal<\/p>\n
The Journal\n<\/p>\n
Despite the strong denials of any Ipas plans, one Hillsbrook resident said they \u201cdidn\u2019t want a repeat of Citywest\u201d, when a riot took place after an alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl at the grounds of the accommodation centre.<\/p>\n
One family living in a mobile home expressed frustration at the works that had taken place for the modular homes, as they had occurred with little notice and had seen the removal of some trees at the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen January and February come around, those trees were like the first barrier for everyone living here,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n
In his court ruling, Humphreys said the works had been done in a \u201chighly sensitive setting\u201d that is zoned \u201chigh-amenity Dublin mountains\u201d in the South Dublin County Development Plan.<\/p>\n
![\"IMG_1515\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787104452_116_.jpeg\")
\n A home at Hillsbrook in the foreground, sitting beside the Chianti Park modular units. The Journal<\/p>\n
The Journal\n<\/p>\n
Grace O\u2019Neill, whose father was a key objector to the homes, said that \u201ceven if it wasn\u2019t Ipas, it\u2019s not right to try and land people up here\u201d without proper planning procedures, given what she described as a lack of local services.<\/p>\n
Mayor of South Dublin council Francis Timmons told The Journal that while it is \u201cregrettable\u201d that any housing has to be removed, a \u201cclear message must be sent out\u201d that planning rules are there to be followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad that planning enforcement followed up on my many representations on this matter,\u201d Timmons said, adding that it would be \u201cgrossly unfair\u201d if the site owners were allowed to retain the homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOCALS IN A remote community on the Dublin-Wicklow border have given a broad welcome to a court order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66744,253264,615,207511,253265,807,3662,61,16847,60,43],"class_list":["post-597616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-brittas","tag-chianti-park","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-mountains","tag-hillsbrook","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ipas","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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