{"id":261145,"date":"2026-01-01T05:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261145\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:49:14","slug":"kippure-ipas-centre-with-65-houses-loses-planning-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261145\/","title":{"rendered":"Kippure: IPAS centre with 65 houses loses planning cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long-running dispute over 65 houses in Kippure controversially used as IPAS accomodation, which Wicklow County Council says were built without planning permission and must be demolished, has led to an application for the retention of works being refused.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la also refused permission<\/a> for retention of an ESB substation, agricultural storage, maintenance buildings, mixed use building, accommodation building and all associated works \u2013 and said that the development was not exempted from planning permission.<\/p>\n

Retention permission is sought where building or development work has already been carried out without prior permission. Some 200 migrants claiming asylum have been reportedly living in the Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village, and recent figures show<\/a> that the company operating the IPAS centre at Kippure received a total of \u20ac5.6 million from the State between July and September of 2025.<\/p>\n

As reported by Matt Treacy, the owners of the Kippure development, Goldstein Properties, and its managers, Seefin Events, have overseen the building of 65 houses on the site and there was no record of the site owners or managers ever having made an application to Wicklow County Council for planning permission or to notify the authority of their seeking an exemption.<\/p>\n

In November, local Independent Councillor, Gerry O\u2019Neill, said that, \u201cThe people of this area of Wicklow are utterly gobsmacked at how anyone can get away with the building of 65 houses without any planning permission, the building of new roads and footpaths, a new gate lodge, a new electricity plant building, a new canteen and dining facility, a \u201dchapel style building\u201d, the demolition of the old 18 century Belfry, new large car parks, all without planning permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Wicklow County Council enforcement division had ordered that<\/a> the 14 stone masonry clad buildings and 51 dwelling houses be removed from the site within 16 weeks of the 13th of May 2024, in the second enforcement order from the local authority on the development, it continued to operate to provide asylum accommodation.<\/p>\n

The owners went directly to An Bord Plean\u00e1la (ABP) to ask whether the development would be considered as \u201cexempted development\u201d which would have meant that planning permission was not required. An appeal also sought approval for \u201cInstallation of additional underground effluent storage and construction of a new plant and storage building together with all associated site works\u201d, although Wicklow County Council has twice refused permission for the proposed sewerage works.<\/p>\n

As reported by Valarie Hanley of Extra.ie, Uisce \u00c9ireann objected to the proposed sewerage works on the basis that they provide a \u201crisk of potential impact\u201d on almost 900,000 water consumers within the catchment area.<\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la has now effectively agreed with Wicklow County Council in the long-running saga over the Kippure development being used for IPAS purposes.<\/p>\n

It decided that the development seeking retention would not ensure economic, environmental and social sustainability, would result in a significant expansion of tourist development outside of any settlement, remote from services, with no public transport provision and without any clear supportable justification provided.<\/p>\n

It also agreed that structures at Kippure Lodge\u00a0 \u2013 gate lodge A and gate lodge B, a semi-detached agricultural storage facility, a detached agricultural maintenance\/storage facility, an electricity distribution building, an open fronted agricultural storage shed, a former agricultural building now used to accommodate protected persons, the pavilion and kitchen building, the former belfry building, a concrete paved area, accommodation block number one, Art O\u2019Neill\u2019s building, a car park adjacent to the former belfry building, a large gravelled area to the north-east of the holiday village, accommodation block number two and on-site storage of soil\/stone, boulders, machinery and building materials \u2013 were not exempted development which was not required to seek planning permission.<\/p>\n

Cllr. O\u2019Neill previously\u00a0described<\/a> the development as \u201cone of the greatest planning scandals to hit the country in a long long time,\u201d detailing how long standing trees and a belfry from the 1800s had been removed from the site\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Currency\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that the\u00a0300-acre estate \u201cwas bought in 2020 by Quanta Capital, an investment vehicle which buys and manages assets on behalf of Goldstein Property Icav, the registered owner of the estate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe estate lands include Kippure Lodge, which is leased to Seefin Events Unlimited.\u00a0 Seefin manages the holiday village, partly used to house international protection applicants for which the company has received almost \u20ac14 million in payments from the Department of Integration since 2023,\u201d<\/p>\n

The directors of Seefin Events Unlimited are Carol Dwyer, and Sin\u00e9ad Fennelly, who are also the directors of a number of other \u00adcompanies which received, between them, more than \u20ac33m from State accommodation contracts last year.<\/p>\n

As previously noted on Gript, More details on the business dealings of Fennelly and Dwyer can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matt Treacy previously revealed an extensive list<\/a>\u00a0of those involved with Goldstein Properties ICAV and Quanta Capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoldstein Property also owns premises in East Wall and at Airways Industrial Estate, Santry, which have also been used to accommodate persons claiming International Protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the directors of Quanta Capital, Eoghan Coughlan, is also listed as a director of Goldstein Holdings Limited, registered in the Isle of Man, and Goldstein Properties UK.<\/p>\n

Barrister Joe Christle is also registered as one of the directors of Goldstein Properties UK and the founder and CEO of Quanta Capital, Mel Sutcliffe is listed as a \u201cperson of significant control\u201d in the company.<\/p>\n

As Gript\u00a0previously revealed,<\/a>\u00a0the owners of\u00a0Kippure Manor-based Seefin Events and were granted a loan by a financial company controlled by former Anglo Irish Bank executive Tiarnan O\u2019Mahoney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-running dispute over 65 houses in Kippure controversially used as IPAS accomodation, which Wicklow County Council says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,134495,18,13,14,6,19,27660,17,134496,11,12,15,16,5,134497,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-261145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-county-council","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ipas","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-kippure","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-planning-never-sought","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115818277353717504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}