Tipperary man Sean Meehan has told Gript that he has come out of retirement in order to fund an ongoing legal battle against his local county council.
As Gript previously reported, the 67-year-old has been embroiled in a 4-and-a-half year dispute with Tipperary County Council who have ordered him to remove a mobile home encased in wood which Meehan erected on his own land in order to house himself after a divorce.
After failing to secure his during numerous appearances at Cashel District Court, Meehan sought a judicial review of his case, and is due to appear before the Four Courts in Dublin on the 23rd of January next in anticipation of a result.
“It’s never ending,” he said, adding, “I’m not taking it down, so this is where we are.”
“They’ll have to take it down and put me into prison,” he said.
The motorbike enthusiast says that he’s been forced to sell his bikes in order to pay for legal representation, with the judicial review coming at a cost of €15,000.
In all, he says he has spent €28,000 on his legal battle, “I’m no better off than I was 4-and-a-half years ago,” he said.
“I’m back working again, I’m 67 and I’m working again,” he said, adding, “I just can’t keep the things paid.”
“It’s tough going,” he said.
Referring to the judicial review, he said, “€15,000, I’ve paid 5 already, but that’s another 10 grand outstanding on that, but I had no choice.”
“I sold a few motorcycles I had, but then that didn’t cover it, so I said, ‘look there’s no choice for me I gotta go back to work’,”.
“So, wonderful country we live in,” he said, pointing to the government’s having constructed modular homes for Ukrainian refugees in nearby Haywood Road, Clonmel.
82 “rapid build” modular homes are now housing over 300 Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection, with the project costing in the region of €285.3 million euros, although the final cost is yet to be signed off on, according to the Irish Independent.
Minister Jim O’Callaghan, in a response to local TD Mattie McGrath, said that, while the final cost of the rapid build project, managed by Tuath Housing, is not yet clear, that the “estimated” cost of each unit was €436,000.
“That came under a Section 5, exempt from planning,” Meehan said, adding, “I’m seven miles out the road, and I’m on bail,” in reference to a custodial sentence of 4-months that was imposed on him from Cashel District Court for failing to remove his home from his land, which is under appeal.
An Bord Pleanála has also refused to allow for retrospective retention of the home, saying it would devalue the surrounding properties, and that Meehan has not satisfied the social need to live in the area where he says he was born and raised.
While Meehan has placed himself on the council’s housing list, he refused an offer of a two storey house the local authority offered to build on the land on condition that it would gain ownership of the site on his death.
Meehan previously told Gript that he wishes to leave the site to his granddaughter, and not to the council.