The Irish Examiner - Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Man vows: I'll stay in Moyross even it is razed

By Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

A HOME owner who has vowed to oppose plans by Limerick’s regeneration board to bulldoze Moyross, says he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

Businessman Tommy Daly, whose family also have three privately-owned houses in the sprawling estate, claimed their property rights are being infringed.

He revealed there has been no consultation with the authorities who plan to flatten 1,200 houses in Moyross.

The multi-phase demolition scheme will also target Southill and Ballinacurra Weston in a €700 million project which envisages the creation of two new towns.

But Mr Daly warned people who own their homes in the huge Moyross estate cannot be trampled on.

He was one of the first council tenants to move into Moyross nearly 23 years ago but, 10 years ago, bought out from Limerick City Council his home at 60, Delmege Park.

He further acquired three other houses at 57, 58 and 75 Delmege Park for his sons.

Mr Daly said: "I and my sons don’t want to live anywhere else. We own our own properties and this regeneration agency is going around announcing that all houses, including the homes we own, will be demolished without as much as a word with me or my sons.

"We have rights and we have invested a lot of money to improve our homes. We are not going to be treated like tenants of the council."

As home owners, he said, they have the same rights as any other property owners in the land.

Mr Daly insisted: "If an organisation came in and told the owners of homes in another part of the city that their properties were being levelled without further warning, there would be a public outcry. I and my sons own our homes in Moyross and we have the same rights as any other home owner and we won’t be talked down to."

Since purchasing his own home, he had invested in excess of €150,000 in huge improvements.

Mr Daly said he values his house at around €300,000.

He said: "If they want me to move, they can’t give me just any house and will have to give me a house of he same value. I am a very patient man but there’s only so much you can take."

Mr Daly said he and his sons will insist on replacement properties which reflect the value of their current homes.

He or his family will not consider moving out of their homes to make way for the proposed wide scale demolition until agreed properties are ready for them.

Mr Daly said: "Like any other private home owners, we will have to be compensated if we have to move from where we have lived since Moyross was first built. But that is for another day.

"Most of the people here are council tenants and are being dictated to because they don’t own their own homes.

"We are not going to be dictated to by this regeneration board and I’ll go to Europe if needs be to uphold my rights as a private property owner. Within reason, I am not a man to hold up progress for the community. But I was one of the first in here and bought my home and also homes for my three sons."

President Mary McAleese will unveil the vision documents for the regeneration of Moyross, Southill and Ballinacurra Weston in Limerick next Monday.

The regeneration board’s document outlines how more than 2,500 houses in Southill, Moyross and Ballinacurra Weston, all built by Limerick City Council will be razed to the ground and replaced by two new towns.

Brendan Kenny, chief executive of the agency, said yesterday: "In relation to individual householders, we will be engaging intensely with those people in the coming months and everybody will get a brand new home — as good if not better than what they have."