{"id":636505,"date":"2026-09-26T09:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/636505\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:20:09","slug":"demolition-of-partially-completed-estate-at-rock-of-cashel-to-begin-soon-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/636505\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolition of partially completed estate at Rock of Cashel to begin soon \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The demolition of 52 partially completed homes overlooking the Rock of Cashel<\/a> in Co Tipperary<\/a> will commence \u201cshortly\u201d after a bat survey takes place over the coming weeks, the local authority has said.<\/p>\n

The assessment will be conducted by an ecologist to check for the presence, species and activity of bats. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe bat survey will take place within the next three weeks with demolition commencing shortly after the survey is completed,\u201d Tipperary County Council<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

The council confirmed its decision<\/a> last May to demolish the properties at Ballypadeen, which were meant to be holiday homes linked to a hotel that never materialised. They have been derelict for close to 20 years.<\/p>\n

Planning permission<\/a> for the \u201choliday suites\u201d on an elevated six-hectare site and a 120-bedroom, four-storey over-basement hotel and leisure centre, complete with bus and car parking and a helipad, was granted to Co Laois developer Liam Campion in November 2004 by what was then South Tipperary County Council. <\/p>\n

Construction began in 2006 but halted the following year after the council claimed the houses were not being built in compliance with planning permission.<\/p>\n

Campion denied breaching planning rules and, in December 2008, the claims against him were dismissed by Cashel District Court.<\/p>\n

Complex planning and legal engagement between the parties followed, including Campion pursuing the council for damages.<\/p>\n

A mediated settlement was agreed in July 2025. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We\u2019re not trying to slow things down\u2019: Court-ordered demolition of homes behind scheduleOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

As part of the agreed remediation, the council began progressing a \u201cPart 8\u2033 planning application \u2013 a planning application made by a local authority \u2013 to remove the houses. Once that is complete, the future of the site\u2019s development will rest with Campion.<\/p>\n

Speaking this week, Campion said he had \u201cno idea\u201d what he would do with the site once demolition was completed and it would be determined by \u201cthe way it\u2019s left\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think their proposal is to leave it fairly rough so my options will be fairly limited,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Independent TD Mattie McGrath<\/a>, who has raised the issue a number of times in the D\u00e1il, said the council\u2019s decision \u201cbeggars belief in a housing crisis\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo many thousands of people are homeless and so many are looking for starter homes and trying to buy houses … It is madness as far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Tipperary County Council has said it must make decisions based on planning law, policy, and the long-term sustainable development of the area. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Help to buy threshold for first-time buyers unlikely to be raised in budgetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The site is located on unzoned and unserviced land outside the Cashel settlement boundary, according to the local authority, and residential development would conflict with national, regional and local planning policy.<\/p>\n

Independent technical assessments found \u201csignificant defects\u201d, including water damage and noncompliance with building regulations, it said, and any reuse would require \u201csubstantial reconstruction\u201d.<\/p>\n

The estimated cost of adapting the development for residential use is about \u20ac24 million, the council said, \u201cmaking reuse financially unviable\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The demolition of 52 partially completed homes overlooking the Rock of Cashel in Co Tipperary will commence \u201cshortly\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,88399,43,2549,9123,21351],"class_list":["post-636505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mattie-mcgrath","tag-news","tag-planning-permission","tag-tipperary","tag-tipperary-county-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636505","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=636505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}