Ryevale House, an 18th-century mansion in Kildare, continues to be used to house asylum claimants despite Kildare County Council issuing a refusal notice for planning permission to the owners.
The Irish Mail on Sunday said that the local authority refused permission to developers on the basis that the was “subject to a material change of use, and such use is unauthorised”.
It also said that Ryevale House is a protected structure, meaning works of the type already carried out on the building are not permitted.
Finally, the refusal letter states that ‘proposed’ building work in an adjoining shed had already been carried out on the date of the council’s inspection, meaning ‘the public notices are inaccurate’.
The use of Ryevale House as an asylum centre has been the source of controversy since it was first known that it was to be repurposed, and that the Minister for Integration was insisting that planning permission was not required because of the exemption for asylum accommodation.
Local residents were previously furious when developers cut down an estimated €100,000 worth of protected trees around the stately home without permission.
All the mature trees in Ryevale House cut down. An area of special conservation during nesting season. All the paperwork in place for this? @joeneville2010 @CathMurphyTD @ReadaCronin pic.twitter.com/rqX5chGoEo
— Alan Hibbitts (@Alan_Hibbitts) April 24, 2023
Before and after shots of Ryevale House in Leixlip, now a centre for 80 international protection applicants. The owner says just 5 trees came down with four taken down for "health and safety". https://t.co/rveCXrVnFg pic.twitter.com/kAujXJDTzs
— Mark Tighe (@MarkLTighe) April 30, 2023
The felling of the trees in the protected woodland – some of which were said to be more than 100 years old – was described as “nothing short of absolute vandalism” by a local TD.
Built in 1761, the protected structure was once the home of renowned architect Sam Stephenson. It was sold for €1.6 million in December 2022 to companies under the control of businessman Ronan Mallon.
Gript reported in January 2024 that Ryevale House had at that date received €1,195,040 in payments from the Department of Integration since it had begun to provide asylum accommodation in March 2023.
Two other companies of which Ronan Mallon is currently a director – Laupteen Limited and Sicuro Holdings – have between them been the recipients of more than €7.3 million from the taxpayer up to the end of the first half of 2023.
Residents close to Ryevale had met with Minister Roderic O’Gorman in February 2023 to question whether a protected premises ought to be used for that purpose. O’Gorman promised them that he would consult the Attorney General. Asylum seekers were moved into the historical building the following month.
The Ryevale Lawns Residents’ Association has now written to Minister O’Gorman again about Kildare County Council’s latest attempt to point out that permission ahs not been granted for the unauthorised use of the house.
“This decision by KCC once again highlights how your decision, as a Government Minister, to go ahead with the Ryevale House contract, despite being fully aware that it was contrary to planning law, has undoubtedly caused serious damage to the planning system, has brought the wider operation of the law into disrepute, has undermined the integrity of the public service and has destroyed the credibility and reputation of your Department, the Government and your Party,” they said.
The Residents Association had previously reported O’Gorman to SIPO because, they said, he had awarded a contract to the developer to house asylum claimants in a protected structure.
At the heart of the dispute is the Minister’s insistence that changes to Ryevale House – a protected structure – could be made without planning permission. The government has relied on its own exemption to planning permission in the case of asylum accommodation elsewhere.
As the Irish Sun reported: “Kildare Co Council had also stated that Ryevale House was not exempt from planning laws that would prevent any changes to the protected structure being made without permission.”
But despite the ruling, O’Gorman ploughed ahead with the project to renovate the manor – on the advice of the developer.
O’Gorman claimed that “in this severely pressurised context” the changes to Ryevale House did not amount to “material change of use” and that planning was not required.
He added: “The department has decided to utilise the facility, such is the pressure on the State accommodation system.”
Local TD Catherine Murphy said: “The idea that the Department took on board the owners’ planning advice in front of the statutory planning authority is just mind boggling.
On May 1 this year, the TD asked Minister O’Gorman to clarify:
Minister O’Gorman previously said details of the contract with Ryevale could not be given to Ms Murphy because they were ‘commercially sensitive’.
Denis McCarthy, chairman of the Ryevale Lawns Residents Association, said in April that Squirrel Wood adjacent to the mansion was being “contaminated” by people using the wood to go to the toilet with “clumps of toilet paper appearing in the wood, just outside the wall of the Ryevale House.”
“We were keeping an eye on it and basically it was people using the woods for what we’ll call ‘number ones’, piddling in other words. But then it progressed on to number twos and I said this has gone on too far,” he said.
“I made contact with Kildare County Council and I said our woods were now contaminated. I had barrier tape and I taped off all the different areas that were contaminated, of which there were around five.”
In a statement to Dublin Live, Kildare County Council said they “recently visited Ryevale House and met with the management of that facility to make them aware of complaints received in connection with waste in nearby Squirrel Woods”.
“The management of Ryevale House strenuously deny that any waste in Squirrel Woods is connected with the occupants of Ryevale house,” the statement said.
Catherine Murphy told the site that: “People started to notice that they were being used as a toilet and it then prompts the question, why is this happening and why is it happening now? Because it hadn’t been happening up until recent months when it began presenting as an issue.”