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Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Penneys is battling to keep one of its prime city centre properties off the land-hoarders list

The firm faces thousands of euro in levies over the long-vacant Independent House on Abbey Street.

THE FIRM BEHIND clothing chain Penneys is fighting to keep a prominent city centre location it owns off the vacant site register and avoid thousands of euro in levies.

Primark Limited has filed an appeal with the national planning authority in a bid to remove Independent House, a property it owns on Middle Abbey Street, from the land-hoarders list.

The vacant site register initiative was launched last year in an attempt to prevent property owners from sitting on land that could be potentially developed for housing.

An owner of a site on the register can be hit with levies of up to 3% of the market value of the plot. This figure is due to rise to 7% from next year.

After a site is placed on the register by the council, the owner has a 28-day window to appeal the inclusion of their property on the list. If the council upholds its own decision, the ruling can be appealed to the national planning board.

According to the published vacant site register for Dublin council, the building was placed on the list on 17 May.

The building, which was constructed in the 1920s, was the former headquarters of Independent Newspapers up until 2003.

The newspaper group moved out when the building was sold to a firm owned by developer Paddy Kelly and businessman Niall McFadden, a former shareholder of Arnotts.

The building was acquired five years ago by Primark and has been vacant ever since. It is located beside the Abbey Street entrance for the Penneys O’Connell Street outlet.

A spokeswoman for Primark told Fora that since the appeal is ongoing, the company is not in a position to comment.

independent house Independent House on Abbey Street Google Maps Google Maps

High-profile developers

Since the introduction of the vacant site register, a number of well-known developers, including Glenveagh Properties and Ires REIT, have appealed the inclusion of their sites on the list.

In May, high-profile developer Pat Crean lost an appeal to have a property he owns in Greystones removed from the land-hoarders list due to lack of action on the site, which has been approved for housing.

Retailer Dunnes Stores has also appealed against the inclusion of a prominent property it owns in south Dublin being listed on the register.

The Irish State is also sitting on large plots of vacant land, according to figures revealed following a recent parliamentary question.

Minister of State Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran told the Dáil there are 98 unoccupied properties directly under the State’s ownership.

Sign up to our newsletter to receive a regular digest of Fora’s top articles delivered to your inbox.

Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie

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    Mute mickmc
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:31 PM

    And if they accepted the original proposal they’d be better off. Once again we have the union bosses leading their member on a merry dance to no where.

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:36 PM

    @mickmc: At least 87% of the union members voted. Compare this to the numbers of teachers who actually voted to give ASTI a “mandate” for industrial action! Usually around 35/40%

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:51 PM

    @Soccer T’s: Correction: I see that on the last Asti ballot it was 77% of members who voted which probably accounted for the very narrow margin of victory for more industrial action (only 52% in favour) Nice of them to actually turn up to vote this time compared to the vote in 2015 when only a handful of members actually voted, meaning the delusional militants got their way. This is our kids future they are destroying while they couldn’t even take the time to vote!!

    Interestingly the kids sitting the junior cert in a few weeks are the kids who should be sitting the new junior cert 3 years after it was supposed to be introduced!!

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/teachers-threaten-further-industrial-action-after-split-vote-1.2364660?mode=amp

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    Mute booby sandwiches
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:33 PM

    biggest climbdown in history PMSL

    Leo is going to sort these evil unions out #Leoforleader

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    Mute Adrian™
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:39 PM

    What are the terms they are agreeing to? And compared to what they were first offered? Bit more info wouldn’t go astray in the story.

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    Mute Keith Grant
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:29 PM

    Looks like all those weeks of strike were well worth it ay?? Ahahahah

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    Mute Keith Grant
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:28 PM

    Hahahahahah

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    Mute abcyz
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:39 PM

    The union & some drivers were on Liveline etc saying our OAPS & disabled shouldn’t be allowed free travel even tough it was and is widely used for hospital appointments etc. There wasn’t much challenge by media presenters during the strike about the unfair travel card demonisation stories even by drivers themselves on liveline.

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    Mute dead right
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:30 PM

    @abcyz: thats absolute b@llox your spouting no driver or union representative ever said the people you mentioned shouldn’t be allowed travel for free not once.

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:40 PM

    @abcyz: That’s total bull! They suggested that we should revisit the payments made by the government to the free travel scheme. It’s a fixed amount each year no matter how many actually use the service. They were making the point that a huge number of pensioners never even use the travel pass. With the new travel pass surely they can implement a system of “use or lose”. Why should the taxpayer pay for something that isn’t being used? If a pensioners travel pass is cancelled due to lack of use they should be allowed to reapply but simply making blind payments is ridiculous

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    Mute Soccer T's
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:41 PM

    @Soccer T’s: Or maybe we should just offer giving every adult children’s allowance just in case they have kids

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    Mute dead right
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:56 PM

    @abcyz: there wasnt much media challenge on the issue beacuse it was never said ah well you got 26 likes good try

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    Mute Stouts O Shea
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    May 22nd 2017, 5:25 PM

    @Soccer T’s: your day s of scewing the public are over

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello.
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:04 PM

    Took their sweet time voting, didn’t they.

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    Mute Gerry Carroll
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:57 PM

    Poor mites – already paid more than 40% over the private companies drivers and greed drive them to look for more – diddums. The blatant bleating for ‘all stakeholders’ to get involved was embarrassing; for stakeholders read chequebooks. I’m far from a fan of Transport Minister Ross but in this instance he was right not to dip further into taxpayers’ pockets to transfer their money directly into already overpaid drivers rabid with greed. Looking for a pay rise from a company already trading at a loss? Three weeks on strike and they got a pay cut, redundancies, new rosters, picking litter from buses they never did before, reduced overtime – good work lads.

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:59 PM

    Scared sitless ! So they were !

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    Mute Paul
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:48 PM

    Shocked they back it and by a high margin.

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:12 PM

    @Paul:
    Didn’t thing that would pass

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    Mute Gavin Redmond
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    May 22nd 2017, 2:17 PM

    And the unions saying there still may be a possibility of strike if the company change the agreement. So who is calling the shots.

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    Mute Paul
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    May 22nd 2017, 1:48 PM

    Shocked they back it and by a high margin.

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    Mute Gerry Carroll
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:39 PM

    Not sure it was the union leaving the charge on this – may have been the drivers driving (no pun intended) the union to enable their fanciful out of touch with reality demands

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    Mute Eric Djemba-Djemba
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    May 22nd 2017, 10:00 PM

    Let it rot and die so it can be privatised and ran properly by a company. Don’t know anybody from Wexford that chooses bus eireann over the Wexford bus service as they are miles apart in quality and reliability best thing to ever happen.

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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    May 22nd 2017, 4:35 PM

    What an overpaid clown Dermot o Leary is . He has made them all look very silly

    14
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