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02 Apr 2026
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02 Apr 2026
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The Ard Rí Hotel in Waterford city, which has lay vacant for over 20 years.
The owner of a “big great eyesore” in Waterford city is paying no fines to the council, a council meeting has heard.
Independent councillor Declan Barry raised the issue of the Ard Rí Hotel at the March meeting of the Metropolitan District.
Cllr Barry said: “I am going to again raise the issue of the Ard Rí Hotel.
“A lot of my councillor colleagues have been raising this time and time again. I’m here eight months and many times it’s come up.
“Our city is coming together lovely with our greenways, the North Quays and all those other things and we have this big great eyesore over there. That needs to be put back in play.”
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He asked how many fines the council has issued to the owner of the building due to its derelict state.
“I want to know what fines, how much the owners of that are paying the council in fines for the amount of time it’s been there.
“How vigorous are we dealing with this to try and get some action on it because I reckon when my five years are over here, it’ll still be sitting there the way it is.
“There doesn’t seem to be any movement on it whatsoever,” he concluded.
In response to Cllr Barry, Executive Planner David Quinn said that the council is monitoring the situation.
Mr Quinn said: “In relation to the Ard Rí, we have a file on that. It was subject to High Court proceedings which was resolved there recently enough.
“Therefore, the property wasn’t progressed onto our Derelict Sites Register so a levy can’t be charged if it’s not on the register.”
The High Court proceedings mentioned refer to a legal dispute between the Treacys Hotel Group and US fund Cerberus over the sale of the property in 2016.
The family-owned business claimed that it had paid a €160,000 non-refundable deposit and demonstrated that it had the cash to pay for the property.
However, Cerberus later sold the property to local businessman Seamus Walsh for a price of €1.5 million. The legal dispute was settled in April 2024.
Cllr Barry also raised the issue of the derelict hotel at the Metropolitan District meeting held in April 2025.
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