A plumber and his wife who built 588 square meter home on land near Navan, in Ireland’s midlands, despite being told not to, have been ordered by the Irish Supreme Court to demolish it within one year, after a failed appeal that invoked, among other justifications, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Irish Times writes:
The Irish Supreme Court has given a Co Meath couple 12 months to demolish a house they built more than a decade ago in ‘flagrant breach of the planning laws’. Meath County Council, which brought the case against Michael Murray, a plumber, and his wife Rose, said it would not apply for legal costs against them if the house is demolished….
… In their appeal, they argued, among other things, the demolition order was incompatible with their property, family, parental and private ownership rights under the Constitution, and similar rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Giving the Supreme Court’s decision, Mr Justice William McKechnie said the court was mindful of the hardship its decision would cause to the Murrays but it could not lose sight of the fact they had been living for over a decade in an unauthorised development built in flagrant breach of the planning laws.
