Kerry County Council workers yesterday moved on to a golf course to carry out emergency work to ensure part of a golf course does not collapse on a nearby coastal cottage at Ballinskellig's Bay, Waterville.
The owner of the golf course denies the cottage is in danger, and says that unusually high tides have caused recent rockfalls.
The 18-hole Skellig Bay golf course, near Hog's Head off the Ring of Kerry road, is under threat of closure by the council after rocks and other material used to reinforce a cliff-top tee- box collapsed within metres of the home of Breda McGillicuddy at Baslickane early on Tuesday.
Enforcement proceedings were served on the golf course owner Micheál O'Shea on Monday, the council said.
The proceedings follow an alleged failure to properly comply with conditions for retention permission, cliff erosion and protection works carried out to the cliff face three years ago, the council said.
Ms McGillicuddy, the owner of the 200-year-old coastal cottage in Ballinskellig's Bay, told of being woken on Tuesday morning. Her dog, Róisín, was pulling at her to get out of the house.
The sea was "like a tsunami", and suddenly "tonnes of rock came crashing down" from the tee-box face just behind her house, she said.
"My instinct was to run. I didn't know what was happening," Ms McGillicuddy, who is in her 60s, said yesterday.
Kerry County Council should have moved quicker to ensure the cliff was properly reinstated, Ms McGillicuddy said.
The coastal protection was "a bundle of stones" at the back of her house and she feared for her safety.
In 2004 she appealed the council's grant of permission to Mr O'Shea for retention and completion of "cliff erosion protection works" adjacent to the golf course.
In January 2005, An Bord Pleanála granted the permission subject to conditions, including reinstatement works to the cliff.
The golf course was granted permission in 1999. However, Friends of the Irish Environment complained that some of the works into the cliff had done more damage than 100 years of natural erosion.
Yesterday, Kerry County Council said "because of the threat to the lady's house" the council was using the emergency provisions under the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1964 to move on to the golf course lands and carry out works on dangerous structures.
"We are treating this extremely seriously," a spokesman said.
They had also served emergency notice that the golf course was to be closed, according to the spokesman.
When contacted yesterday, golf club owner Mr O'Shea said he did not believe there was a threat to Ms McGillicuddy's house from the golf course tee-box.
There had been "very high tides" over the last few days and there had been slippage of a wall protecting the golf course as a result.
"We have co-operated with the council and have put signs up on the golf course," he said.
The area had been cordoned off by the council, he added. "There is no fear of it [ the tee-box collapsing]" Mr O'Shea said.
He did not wish to comment on the separate matter of enforcement proceedings and said he was not aware of the notice which the council said they had sent out on Monday.
If this were the case, then it would relate to the coastal works retention matter, he said.