Kenny and Noonan show little sympathy for evicted couple

BOTH THE Taoiseach and Minister for Finance have shown little sympathy for the couple who were dramatically evicted from their home on Wednesday afternoon.

Enda Kenny described the circumstances in which Brendan Kelly (71) and his wife, Asta (63), found themselves evicted from their home as being “peculiar”.

Mr Kenny told Newstalk he did not understand why the couple had not made arrangements to live elsewhere since they were served with a repossession order two years ago.

Michael Noonan said the Government would distinguish between those who wanted to stay in their homes and professional landlords.

“We have no pledge to keep people in 21 different homes and we must distinguish between people who can’t pay and people who won’t pay,” he said.

Yesterday, The Irish Times reported that the couple had bought 21 properties during the 1990s and the last decade.

Mr Kelly spent yesterday in the Dáil talking to politicians, including Dún Laoghaire People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, according to neighbours.

His wife, who remained outside the house from which they were evicted, declined to comment citing legal matters before going into a neighbour’s house.

A small blue tent remained outside the driveway of the five-bedroom red-brick home at St Matthias Wood, Killiney, Co Dublin.

Neighbours at the immaculately kept, gated cul-de-sac said the couple did not intend to spend last night in the tent.

One neighbour who declined to be named said the couple’s property empire had “made their argument very difficult”, but added that nobody deserved to be evicted in a “brutal manner”.

The house was being looked after by security guards employed by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

Irish Nationwide Building Society, which is now part of the corporation, gave the couple a €2.2 million mortgage for the house in 2004. The outstanding portion of the mortgage is in the region of €2 million, with the last mortgage payment on the house having been made in 2009.

When asked why they had not sold some properties to meet debts, Mr Kelly said it was practically impossible to sell in the current climate.

Sympathy came from an unlikely source yesterday when members of the Occupy Dame Street movement visited the house to express their solidarity with the couple.

Mrs Kelly thanked the protesters, who said they would offer every assistance to her and to anybody else who found themselves in danger of eviction.

One protester, Seán Ryan, said the number of homes the couple owned was “irrelevant”.

“Do we define these people by their net worth?” he asked.