{"id":663247,"date":"2026-10-23T16:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T16:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/663247\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T16:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T16:54:19","slug":"owner-of-e2-5m-uninhabitable-house-in-dalkey-seeks-its-demolition-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/663247\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of \u20ac2.5m \u2018uninhabitable\u2019 house in Dalkey seeks its demolition \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A homeowner who paid \u20ac2.5 million last year for a coastal home in Dalkey<\/a>, south Dublin<\/a>, wants to demolish the \u201cuninhabitable\u201d home due to the presence of \u201cextremely high\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d levels of radon gas.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, Peter Woods paid \u20ac2.5 million for Nirvana on Coliemore Road, Dalkey.<\/p>\n

Woods has lodged plans with D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council<\/a> to demolish Nirvana and construct three new houses on the site.<\/p>\n

The houses would comprise a 349sq m three-storey, four-bedroom dwelling with a sauna; and two two-storey, three-bedroom dwellings of 124sq m each.<\/p>\n

The larger home is to be located at the rear of the steep sloping site with the two smaller homes closer to Coliemore Road.<\/p>\n

A report by planning consultant Kiaran O\u2019Malley, concerning the Woods application, said that, initially, Woods had intended to renovate Nirvana \u201cbut following a number of radon surveys and remediation measures, the radon levels could not be brought down to safe levels so it was recommended to demolish the house\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"Why is motor insurance so expensive in Ireland?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley said the radon levels detected at the home were \u201cdangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and is classified as a group-one carcinogen and is the second-biggest cause of lung cancer in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Radon is colourless, odourless and tasteless and can be measured only using specialised equipment.<\/p>\n

Tests carried out at Nirvana by Cora Consulting Engineers between May and July 2025 detected radon levels more than five times the maximum limit for a domestic house and 13 times the average level in Ireland.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tech multimillionaire wins planning battle over demolition of \u20ac7.5m Dalkey homeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In his report lodged with the application, John Casey of Cora Consulting Engineers said the only feasible option was \u201cto demolish and replace the house with a new structure with continuous radon membranes from inside to outside\u201d.<\/p>\n

Woods has retained award-winning ODAA Architects to design the proposed scheme.<\/p>\n

In a report, ODAA Architects said Nirvana, which was built in 1958, had been vacant for a number of years and was generally in very poor condition.<\/p>\n

On the need to demolish Nirvana due to the high radon levels, ODAA Architects said \u201caccording to the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> approximately 300 people die per year in Ireland due to radon, so it is a necessity to achieve compliant radon levels at the dwelling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Woods provided the radon findings to the Revenue Commissioners<\/a> and Revenue confirmed in writing that the existing structure was classified as uninhabitable and therefore exempt from local property tax.<\/p>\n

A decision is due on the application in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeowner who paid \u20ac2.5 million last year for a coastal home in Dalkey, south Dublin, wants to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,37468,615,12842,11654,61,60,33320,2549,11522],"class_list":["post-663247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dalkey","tag-dublin","tag-dun-laoghaire-rathdown-county-council","tag-environmental-protection-agency-epa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-local-property-tax","tag-planning-permission","tag-revenue-commissioners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663247","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=663247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}