Building firm told to replace roof
MORE than 320 women took part in this year’s Dip in the Nip on Rosslare Strand recently, baring it all for a cancer charity.
Organiser Eileen Rowe said a whopping €12,500 had been raised on the day and more was still coming in.
Wexford women, offered the chance to shed their clothes for a good cause, grabbed it with both hands and with sea temperatures unusually warm there was a large and enthusiastic turnout of fund raisers.
The event, with the venue kept secret from all but those taking part, was in aid of the Hope Cancer Support Centre in Enniscorthy.
Last year, 248 women took part in the dip, which has been running for three years and has proved to be a major fund raiser for the centre.
Many took the dip in memory of those they had lost to cancer or to mark their own battle with the illness. Others saw it as an opportunity to celebrate an event such as a hen party or birthday or even an upcoming wedding, while many more decided to take part for the fun of it all. ‘It really is a very personal thing,’ said Eileen. ‘People have such a mental block about taking off their clothes and hopping into the sea but it’s an experience you have to witness to see how much fun it is.
Pictures by Paula Malone Carty
A leading Wexford building firm has been ordered by a High Court judge to replace the roof of a house which a young couple were forced to leave seven years ago because of sickness allegedly due to ‘ toxic’ mould and fungus.
Mr Justice Donald Binchy ruled that Shane and Antoinette O’Reilly were entitled to the costs of having to rent alternative accommodation, but were not entitled to damages because of the extensive other reliefs directed by the court.
They sued the builders and developers of the property, builders Seamus, Liam, Colm, Anthony and Brendan Neville and William Neville and Sons, a building and development company trading as the Wexford-based Neville Development Partnership.
Seamus O Tuathail, SC, who appeared with John Gibbons, SC and barrister Dolores Keane for the O’Reilly’s, told the court that the couple had bought and moved into a three bedroom duplex at Millrace Crescent, Saggart, Co Dublin in 2005 for €280,000.
They claimed property defects which had not been rectified, including condensation, mould and fungus growth caused by poor ventilation in the attic and bedrooms, allegedly resulting in their two young sons having developed respiratory infections.
The O’Reilly’s obtained medical test results in June 2010 showing one of their children had a mass on one of his lungs and they had been advised to leave the property which they had done in August 2010.
The couple sought damages of approximately €97,000 for alleged negligence, breach of duty including that the defendants failed to ensure the property was free from defects which would endanger the O’Reilly family’s health.
All the defendants, denied the claims and said they made an open offer to repair anything that might be wrong with the property. This had been refused by the O’Reillys who had been living in rented accommodation since.
They claimed they had problems with leaks, inappropriate ventilation, water ingress on the property’s balconies, insulation and cracks in the building from the time they took up residence.
On one occasion the bath in the house collapsed and dropped a few inches, it was claimed.
Mr Justice Binchy said the presence of mould in the attic space was entirely attributable to extraordinarily poor workmanship in the ventilation of the attic space and in failing to insulate a ventilation pipe leading from the en-suite bathroom through the attic.
These had been rudimentary matters of construction and failure to attend to them had led to a build-up of unhealthy mould in the attic space.
He said the O Reilly’s were entitled to re-enter their home in the knowledge that matters relating to the mould have been addressed. The fairest solution was that the defendants replace the roof.
The Judge added that, while the parties had been entitled to take their case to court, in his view arbitration would have been a more suitable form of resolution because of the technical nature of the matters in dispute.