*Cathal Crowe TD (FF). Photograph: John Mangan
CLARE TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) has abandoned plans to build a family home at Heathmount, Cratloe after two failed attempts.
This is disclosed in a new planning application before Clare County Council lodged by Deputy Crowe’s sister, Eimear who has now applied to secure planning permission for the same site at Heathmount.
Planning documents show that Deputy Crowe is to gift the site to his sister. As the current owner of the site, Deputy Crowe has provided a letter giving his consent for the application to be lodged.
They also state that Deputy Crowe owns a house elsewhere on the farm that belonged to his uncle who passed away in 2023.
The planning submission states that “it is Cathal’s intention to seek permission to either refurbish or extend this dwelling or seek permission to demolish it and rebuild a new dwelling on the site”.
Deputy Crowe first lodged plans for the planned home at Heathmount in January 2022, withdrew the application after encountering opposition and then re-lodged plans under his Irish name, C. MacConcradha in July 2022.
An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission to his application in September 2024 after Deputy Crowe disclosed to An Bord Pleanála that he owns another house in the area.
An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission after finding that Deputy Crowe’s need to live in the local area “can be met by property and land in his ownership”.
The board concluded that Deputy Crowe has not demonstrated that he meets the necessary ‘economic need or social need’
Now, Eimear Crowe is facing opposition to her own plans with the only objections lodged by individuals with addresses in Limerick and Rathgar in Dublin 6.
Planning consultant for Ms Crowe, Andrew Hersey has told Clare County Council “it is a cause of huge upset and stress for Eimear that the two people who are seeking to block her to build a dwelling house that she very much needs don’t even live in Co Clare”.
Mr Hersey states that “this is the only site available to my client which is to be kindly gifted to her in the event that planning permission is granted for the said development”.
Mr Hersey concedes that the site is located on a scenic route and within a designated ‘Heritage Landscape’ but states that the home will not be visible from the road.
In an objection, Michael Nugent & Co Solicitors of Sandford Rd, Ranelagh, D6 has told the council that “having twice sought and failed to obtain planning permission for himself and his family on this site, it now appears that Cathal Crowe’s sister, Eimear Crowe is the person seeking to build a home for herself”.
Mr Nugent says that coincidentally, Ms Crowe is seeking an almost identical house as Cathal Crowe was seeking to build for himself, on exactly the same site at the same location and being an almost identical design and which has been already refused by An Bord Pleanála.
Mr Nugent states that the application “fails almost every measurement or test as set out in the Development Plan”.
He said, “It is a proposal for a one-off rural house in an area of special control. It is urban generated housing, a ribbon development and proposed to be sited on a scenic route”.
Matthew Broggy’s intervention in Ms Crowe’s planning bid comes 45 years after Mr Broggy’s father, Noel objected to plans by Ms Crowe’s parents, Michael and Irene Crowe to build their own dwelling home.
Noel Broggy opposed the Crowes’ 1979 planning application over a disputed right of way concerning a strip of land adjacent to the Crowe home at Meelick.
Matthew Broggy objected to Deputy Cathal Crowe’s application and in the objection to Eimear Crowe’s house plan, architect, Michael Leahy for Mr Broggy with a Rathkeale, Limerick address has stated that the Council rural housing settlement policy has been introduced to protect areas under pressure from urban, random and un-co-ordinated development “and it should be implemented in this case”.
A decision is due on the application next week.
