Overheard: Developer Paddy Kelly suffers again, this time with the RTB’s maximum €60,000 rent arrears bill

In 2009 the property developer Paddy Kelly had to move out of his swanky Shrewsbury Road home after he ran up debts of €350 million. As he told Fintan O’Toole in an interview afterwards, the alternative wasn’t so bad. “I’m living in a nice house on Morehampton Road now,” he said. “In a way that suits everyone, including those who need to know that Paddy Kelly has suffered. [He laughs.] That’s fine – it’s a lovely house.”

Alas, Paddy and his wife, Maureen, now have to leave the Dublin 4 house and its adjoining mews following a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) ruling. In 2021 the property’s landlord, Miracove Holdings Ltd, served Maureen Kelly with a notice of termination, claiming the family owed €105,000 in rent arrears. Simon Kelly, representing his parents at the RTB hearing, argued there has been an “unconventional” agreement with their previous landlord, Dublin businessman John Morrissey, that the Kellys would buy the property after paying annual rent of €70,000 for an agreed period of time.

But the RTB found in favour of Miracove, the property’s new landlord, ruling its notice of termination from 2021 was valid. The Kellys were ordered to vacate the property and to pay rent arrears of €60,000, the maximum the RTB can award.

Ditch journalist settles rent dispute

Roman Shortall, who owns a third of The Ditch news website, was also on the receiving end of a negative RTB ruling two years ago over a house in Saggart, west Dublin, for which he stopped paying rent in March 2020, running up arrears of almost €50,000. The landlord, Ravensburg Unlimited, secured a court order in January 2023 directing Shortall to leave the house and pay €49,663 in rent arrears, plus the legal costs of the case.

Records show the company registered a debt judgment against the journalist on May 22nd, seeking to recover €55,609 it claimed it was owed from rent arrears and legal costs. Shortall previously offered to pay €10,000 as a “final” settlement of the amount he owed, stating he would pursue a debt writedown if the terms were not accepted.

But following the judgment, the journalist paid €55,608 into the account of the landlord’s solicitor in recent days, settling the dispute.

The mystery of Pembroke Park Residents’ Association

The decision earlier this year to house up to 220 asylum seekers in St Mary’s, a former nursing home on Pembroke Park in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, was largely welcomed as an example of a more affluent area taking its fair share of new arrivals. There were no protests outside the building as families began to arrive in January and February, but not everyone in the leafy suburb was so supportive. At the start of May, Pembroke Park Residents’ Association submitted a referral to Dublin City Council seeking an opinion on whether the building’s new use was compliant with its planning status. Last week the council ruled it was.

But who exactly are the Pembroke Park Residents’ Association? Well they’re not the long-established and formidable Pembroke Road Residents’ Association, founded in the 1970s by art historian Seán Ó Críodáin to safeguard the character of the area.

In a submission to the council, the new owner of St Mary’s, an investment company called Goldstein Property ICAV, notes the address given for the association is the home of car hire rental mogul Colm Menton, the former chief executive of Europcar Ireland and the founder of the GoCar business. The property’s owner points out that the referral to the council does not specify if it is being made on behalf of Menton or a larger group.

“It is unclear who this organisation claims to represent, as we understand that a very large percentage of the local community have voiced strong support and a warm welcome for the new residents of St Mary’s, both in word and deed,” it said.

The solicitor who submitted the referral declined to divulge the names of his clients last week but said the association represented a number of local householders. Menton did not respond to queries.

Siún Ní Raghallaigh adds spice to MacGill Summer School

The MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, must have discussed the future of the media and public service broadcasting at least half a dozen times over the years. But a talk this year on the topic has a little added edge; it’s being given by Siún Ní Raghallaigh, the former chairwoman of RTÉ who has been extremely critical of Minister for Media Catherine Martin’s role in what she describes as her “enforced dismissal” from the RTÉ board.

Ní Raghallaigh, who accused Martin of “actively taking a hands-off approach” to the widening scandal at RTÉ last year following the emergence of the Ryan Tubridy payments, will address the summer school on its first day, alongside Brian MacCraith, chairman of the Future of Media Commission.

Eamon Ryan is also listed as a speaker over the weekend, although it’s very likely that his party colleague, Ms Martin, may be otherwise engaged.

U2′s visitor centre planning permission expires

The expiry of a five-year planning permission for U2′s planned visitor centre in Dublin’s docklands means that it is back to square one for the group. And it’s not the first U2 construction super project that has failed to get off the ground. Remember the plans for the U2 Tower on the corner of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Britain Quay where the Capital Dock apartment building now stands. What would have been the tallest building in Ireland, with a studio for the band on the roof, went through several design iterations, prompting controversy at every turn.

Then there was the dramatic Norman Foster-designed expansion of the Clarence Hotel, which was co-owned by Bono and The Edge at the time. It was due to be topped off by a vast glass atrium on the roof. That planning permission expired in 2013.

More than 20 years on from their grand plans for a docklands tower, there’s still no U2-inspired line on the horizon.

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