Celtic Tiger-era developer Sean Dunne's first wife able to claim €1.5m from his bankruptcy estate
The first wife of Celtic Tiger-era property developer Sean Dunne will be able to claim €1.5m from his bankruptcy estate.
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Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
The Celtic Tiger was a time of vulgarity and gross incompetence, but at least we got things done
The passage of time allows us the luxury of viewing periods of history in a more considered and rounded context. In the years that followed the banking collapse and the bailout paid for by Irish citizens, the phrase ' Celtic Tiger ', which was once a source of pride, became synonymous with gross economic incompetence, greed and vulgarity. The damage has been exhaustively documented – the austerity that hit the poorest communities, the young people forced to emigrate, the builders that went bust, the young couples trapped in negative equity, the middle classes who invested in property and bank shares as a one-way ticket to prosperity only to find themselves facing hardship in their old age. The collapse of the Celtic Tiger was all of these things, but to view it entirely through the prism of how it all ended is to miss the point. READ MORE The Troika left town more than a decade ago. Now, the ratio of Ireland's debt to gross national income has fallen to 70 per cent from 170 per cent at the peak of austerity. Everybody who wants a job has one. Ghost estates, once seen as the most visible manifestation of that period and all its follies, have vanished from the landscape. There were 3,000 in 2010; there are less than one per cent of that figure now. What is the real legacy of the Celtic Tiger? Look around you. In the noughties, more than 600,000 homes were built. The State built a motorway network between 1991 and 2010, which made it immeasurably easier to get around. The tailbacks of Monasterevin and Moate, to name but a couple of bottleneck towns, are a distant memory. The M50 faced multiple objections and was eventually finished in 2005. Would it get built now? The Port Tunnel (2006), Terminal 2 of Dublin Airport (opened in 2010, but built during the boom), Cork suburban railway (2009), the Aviva Stadium, Croke Park, Dublin docklands and Temple Bar - which dates back to the Charles Haughey era - are long-term projects that will outlast the memories of those austerity years. The Celtic Tiger was informed by a can-do attitude and a spirit of optimism. Despite recovering our prosperity, we have not regained the optimism of this heady time. The most basic metric of confidence about the future, the number of children being born, has declined precipitously since peaking during the boom years. Twenty thousand fewer children were born in the State last year than in 2007, despite a significantly bigger population. This has mirrored trends throughout Europe, but Ireland in the 2000s was an outlier in having a birth rate at or around the replacement rate of 2.1 children per women. That number is now 1.5 and declining. Nevertheless, because of the Celtic Tiger era baby boom, Ireland will have a relatively healthy demographic well into the 2040s. Huge mistakes were made during the Celtic Tiger era, but huge things were accomplished. We have spent too long dwelling on the former and not enough on the latter. Few would argue with this policy, but it also abolished tax relief for investors and developments Fifteen years on from the nadir of the bust, the Troika bailout of 2010, perhaps the most important lesson from the Celtic Tiger is that we got things done. The post-boom recovery has been a time of crippling inertia exemplified by the National Children's Hospital, over-budget and long-delayed. Dublin Metrolink, the country's longest-running joke, is a manifestation of how not to get things done. The State's most acute problem, the housing crisis, is a side effect of prosperity, not austerity. Everybody knows there is a serious problem, a bigger and more intractable one than faced when the Troika arrived in town, yet attempts to resolve it have foundered repeatedly because they have been inadequate. Banks lent irresponsibly during the Celtic Tiger years and we all paid a price. We went from being incorrigible spenders to incorrigible savers. Irish people have €156 billion in saving and as a result, the banks are now stuffed with money, yet small and medium-sized developers claim they can't get credit and the equity they need to purchase zoned land is too high. The banks want the Government to offer a State guarantee credit scheme to developers. The Government's response to the property-induced economic crash was to make credit much more restrictive to those wishing to buy a home. Few would argue with this policy, but it also abolished tax relief for investors and developments. Section 23 exemptions were first introduced in 1988 to give a boost to apartment development in inner-city areas of towns and cities which had suffered decades of flight to the suburbs. Developers and investors could write off the costs of investing in apartments against their rental income over a period of 10 years. [ Department objected to Government's 'housing tsar' amid concerns over pay and recruitment Opens in new window ] [ Ireland is like the paradox of Schrödinger's cat: a wet country that has too little water Opens in new window ] By 2011, they were in such bad odour that the coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour abolished them for new entrants at the behest of the Troika. They had an inflationary impact on housing, they allowed wealthy people to shelter taxable income, they were expensive for the State, or so the arguments went. Countering that fact is that they were a huge success in getting homes and apartments built – at least 60,000 over the duration of the scheme. At this remove, the question that the Government should be drawing from the Celtic Tiger years is how so many homes were built - about 90,000 in 2006 alone - and what positive lessons can be drawn from that.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Irish Independent
Ireland has two-and-a-half times more millionaires than at peak of Celtic Tiger
The number of Irish resident millionaires is now more than two-and-a-half times higher than during the Celtic Tiger boom of the late 2000s, according to research from Capgemini.
Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Keys to the Kingdom at €650k developer's former home in Caherdaniel
HOUSING developers aren't known for living in modest homes. Given their stock-in-trade is putting roofs over people's heads, it wouldn't look great if their own properties were demonstrably shoddy. To build confidence in a product and in your own reputation, it's wise to make plain that you're happy to road test your own creation. The woman who bought this Caherdaniel home in Co Kerry eight or so years took it as a good sign that a developer had built it and was also happy to spend his downtime in it. 'I believe he was a developer in Dublin who built it as his own holiday home,' she says, adding that 'he didn't skimp on anything'. 'It was built at the height of the Celtic Tiger, but it wasn't one of those homes that was thrown up. It's a very high-quality build,' the owner says. As any developer worth his salt will tell you, location is everything, and the chap who picked his spot on the Iveragh Peninsula knew in his heart that it doesn't get much better. The holy trinity of mountains, coast and captivating views is hard to beat. Coad, Caherdaniel Moreover, the site had great privacy, in a cul-de-sac, just off the consistently busy, peerlessly scenic Ring of Kerry, and within a short drive of a handful of villages: Castlecove (c five mins), Caherdaniel (eight mins); Sneem (15 mins). Westcove Pier, ideal for swimming, is 15 minutes on foot. Westcove Pier The current owner of this home in the townland of Coad, Caherdaniel, Westcove, was well acquainted with the natural beauty of the landscape when she made the purchase. 'I bought in an area that I knew very well in my childhood and into my 20s. I grew up in London, but my mother was Irish and we always came here for our summer holidays. 'I bought the house very much as a holiday home, with lots of space for family and friends and for entertaining. Open plan kitchen with views of Kenmare Bay 'There was lots of room for people to stay over and even a separate games' room for the kids. It's been perfect,' the owner says. She's used it as a permanent home these past few years and says the area is very nice off-season too. 'It's a great community, and it's not just people coming on holiday. There's lots to do, like books clubs and coffee mornings. I've been living here full-time but it's time now for a new family to enjoy it,' she says. If a family was to buy it as a permanent home, there's a national school in Caherdaniel village and a secondary school in Caherciveen. At almost 2,700 sq ft, it's a fairly capacious home, laid out in a way that seaviews are on display from all the main daytime living accommodation and from two of the four upstairs bedrooms. Open plan dining/living/kitchen Selling agent Ron Krueger of Engel & Völkers says the main open-plan living area is a 'wonderful space, ideal for entertaining' — which it patently is. Natural light floods through floor-to-ceiling windows which frame radiant Kenmare Bay. Across the water is the beautiful Beara Peninsula, cleaved by the Caha Mountain range. Two sets of French doors lead to a terrace, which overlooks the lawn and down towards the bay. It's tailor-made for barbecues. Mr Krueger says the location is 'a haven for outdoor enthusiasts'. Beaches abound and there are Blue Flags everywhere: O'Carrolls Cove; White Strand; renowned Derrynane. Closer to home, Westcove Pier has a modern slipway and safe moorings for boats of all sizes in a tranquil harbour. Fishing opportunities are rife along the coastline. The peninsula has a trio of golf courses, including Waterville links, which attracts a global elite. The Kerry Way hiking path passes a few hundred meters from the front door. When you're done with all the activity, you can kick back in comfort, by the wood burning stove in the lounge area of the open plan space, or outside on the elevated terrace, or on the separate patio by the games room. Games road Lounge If you're too tired to venture upstairs — where two of four bedrooms are en suite with walk-in wardrobes — you can use the downstairs bedroom (there's also a downstairs wet room) — which a new owner may put to another use, such as a study or home office. The separate games room, on the opposite side of a feature arch in the grounds of the house (with storage on the other side), could also be adapted. It has running water. A home gym or artist's studio are other possible uses. As the Iveragh Peninsula is an internationally recognised beauty spot, favoured by visitors, the chances of this home going to an overseas buyer are high. Mr Krueger says they are expecting interest 'very much from within Ireland but also from overseas'. 'So far we've had both Irish interest and enquiries from the US, with showings due to start this week,' the agent says. His guide price for the impressive property is €650,000. Cork and Kerry airports are two hours and one-and-a-half hours away respectively, by car. Kenmare town is a 45-minute drive. VERDICT: Location and setting will get pulses racing among buyers searching for the ultimate holiday bolthole. Overseas interest is a given because of where it is. The quality of the build will also appeal to those looking for a permanent home.
