Lissadell owners say council report is a ‘whitewash’

The owners of Lissadell estate have described a report prepared by Sligo County Council officials for today’s special meeting on the marathon legal battle about public rights of way rights as “a whitewash”.

Members of the county council, many of them furious that the council is now facing a legal bill estimated at between €5 million and €7 million, had asked the executive to furnish them with the legal advice it received in connection with the case for a special meeting to discuss the fall-out today.

In their first public statement since the Supreme Court found in their favour, barristers Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy said the report did little "to inspire confidence in the future of Lissadell". The estate, the ancestral home of 1916 leader Constance Markievicz, was regarded as one of the premier tourist attractions in the north west but it has been closed since 2009. Yesterday the couple said no decision had been made about its future.

Right of way
Last November, the Supreme Court ruled that a public right of way existed along only part of one coastal route to the beach at Lissadell.

In December 2008 the county council had passed a motion to amend its county development plan aimed at protecting public rights of way along four routes at Lissadell.

In his report to councillors, county manager Ciarán Hayes said that if the issue of costs is not agreed, it may be referred to the taxing master and could take up to two years to finalise

He also revealed that early in the 58-day High Court case the council had tried to reduce its exposure and had made an offer aimed at reaching a settlement, but this was not accepted. In a covering letter sent to councillors last Thursday, the manager said there was a lot of misinformation in the public domain, including the widely held belief that the council had initiated the legal proceedings.

“It did not. Indeed it is clear from the documentation that the council went to extensive lengths to avoid litigation with many and varied attempts made in this regard,” he wrote to councillors.

But the owners, who described the last five years as a waste, said that having seen the legal opinion relied on by the council, “it is clear that they knew precisely what they were doing and that they intended from the first to force us into litigation”.

The couple said that before Sligo County Council passed the December 2008 motion, they had asked them not to go ahead, to allow time for proper consideration. “Not only did they not do this, they pushed the motion up the agenda, to be rushed through.”

The owners, who bought the estate in 2003 for €3 million and spent another €9.5 million restoring it, maintained that Sligo County Council had not come to negotiate or to mediate. “They came to dictate. Their own senior counsel advised them that any agreement resulting from negotiations would be ineffective as it ‘would not be binding on third parties and would not preclude third parties instituting proceedings against the new owners’.”, they added.

In his letter to councillors the county manager said he was conscious of the divisions in the local community on this issue and did not want to add to them. "In fact I am putting on record my desire to see Lissadell House brought back to functional use given the significance of the property and its importance to Sligo and the region," he added.

Heated meeting
Mr Hayes said he was conscious that today's meeting, which is expected to be heated, would take place against the backdrop of a local election and he urged that the debate be confined to the facts.

In their statement the owners said it was “ absolutely scandalous” that before embarking on expensive litigation, a public body such as Sligo County Council had not itself independently made any effort to get the views of local people.

“If the Council were acting as a neutral unbiased public body, they would themselves have instituted extensive independent enquiries rather than restricting themselves to information provided to them by a small pressure group, the Lissadell Action Group,” they added.

The couple asked how it had been in the public interest to make a claim “which has resulted in Lissadell being closed, 40,000 visitors and rising being lost, 34 jobs being lost and the people of Sligo having to pay 100 per cent of Sligo County Councils legal costs, and 75 per cent of our legal costs which we incurred in defending our family and our house”.