Daft Property - Irish Property News

Dublin joined in Global Earth Hour last night & lights were switched off all over the city... Ironically, though, the lights on top of Dublin's major landmark, The Spire, which are usually out of action, shone brightly during the event!

I see in the Sunday Independent Newspaper today that "MORE than 430 people who have seen their homes plummet in value as a result of a allegedly defective building materials plan to sue for damages in an unprecedented legal showdown with the construction industry. Hundreds of people who bought homes in three new housing developments in north Dublin resorted to legal action after cracks and other problems allegedly began to appear in their properties. The developers have blamed the problems on defective building materials supplied by a north Dublin quarry and are repairing the defects. That has not stopped residents from signing up with two of the city's biggest law firms, in what promises to be a protracted legal battle that will put building standards centre stage. Arthur Cox is representing around 230 clients in Drynam Hall in Kinsealy and The Coast in Baldoyle, Co Dublin. Both developments were built three years ago by Menolly Homes, one Dublin's biggest home builders.

The Giant's Causeway or "Clochán na bhFómharach"... According to National Geographic reports the legendary Giant's Causeway, in Northern Ireland (a UNESCO World Heritage Site and top tourist destination,) is threated by rising sea levels. Giant's Causeway Video: (Legend has it that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland, but fell asleep before he finished it!)

With Dublin now suffering from major urban sprawl many developers are proposing building higher buildings. This makes sense but should have been started years ago before most of the greenbelt around the city was converted in bland, soulless housing estates. The U2 Tower, is a proposed landmark skyscraper, due to be constructed in Dublin (so called because of the involvement of U2 the rock band): The U2 Tower will be built in the South Docklands at the corner of Sir John Rogerson's Quay and Britain Quay by a unique meeting point of the River Liffey, the River Dodder, and the Grand Canal. The design was announced on October 12 2007 is by Foster and Partners (some of their other projects include Greystones New Quarter in Ireland, Millennium Bridge in London, Millau Viaduct Bridge in France to mention but a few.) The proposed Tower will consist of luxury apartments, with a public viewing platform at 100m, just below an egg-shaped pod that will be U2's recording studio. Above this i

More Fact is Fiction TV Reality or something... "Dodgy Developers, Corrupt politicians, Back Handers and a loss of faith in government, sounds like a normal episode of Law and Order to me! Why not cancel the Mahon Tribunal and let Law and Order sort it in an hour! (allowing for commercials of course!)"

There is growing concern over the new evidence emerging, from the Mahon Tribunal, about large sums of sterling that were lodged into an account that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had said was for his salary cheques. According to ireland.com today the Labour leader..." Eamon Gilmore said in a statement today that the tribunal hearings "raise yet more issues of profound seriousness for the Taoiseach". "We now know that far from being on his financial uppers in the early 1990s, Mr Ahern's myriad of accounts in various financial institutions were awash with money. It now also seems beyond dispute that, despite repeated denials by Mr Ahern, a number of lodgements to his accounts were in sterling. "It is now time for Brian Cowen and other senior figures to put loyalty to the country ahead of loyalty to their damaged party leader; it is time to bring this sorry saga to a conclusion, so that the Government and the Dáil can now concentrate on dealing with the huge social a

I came accross a report in Business Week Magazine about the Celtic Tiger... "Once the envy of Europe, Ireland's economy is set to grow this year at it slowest rate in two decades. The collapse of a housing bubble coupled with the strong euro is raising unemployment and slowing growth, reducing the Celtic Tiger's roar to a whimper. And the news keeps getting worse. More than $5.5 billion was wiped off the value of Irish stocks on Mar. 17, in what commentators have dubbed the "St. Patrick's Day massacre." "The Irish economy is heading into recession," says Alan Ahearne, an economist at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a former senior economist at the U.S. Federal Reserve... It's not just about the global credit crunch, weak banks, or bearish stock markets. Rather, Ireland is at the tail end of a housing- and consumer-fueled boom—similar to that of the U.S.—and finds itself at the mercy of global trends such as inflation, wage-scale