Settlement agreed in Waterford farm eviction for unpaid debt

Settlement terms were agreed last night in the dispute between the Irish Nationwide Building Society and a Co Waterford farm …

Settlement terms were agreed last night in the dispute between the Irish Nationwide Building Society and a Co Waterford farm family who were evicted from their home and land a fortnight ago over an unpaid debt.

Farming organisations, neighbours and friends of the Murphy family had mounted a protest campaign after the society took possession of the Murphys' farmhouse and land at Whitestown, Clonea-Power, near Portlaw, on foot of a court order.

Representatives of Mrs Anne Murphy have been negotiating arrears, interest and legal costs on a loan of just under £70,000 to her late husband, Milo, in 1989.

The society claimed an accumulated debt in the region of £198,000 but the family's legal and financial advisers were disputing over £90,000 of that, saying surcharges and penalties were excessive and unjustified.

READ MORE

Mrs Murphy and her teenage daughter have been staying with relatives since they were served with court documents and security men employed by the building society took over the house and 145-acre farm.

Mrs Murphy's sons, Pat and Billy, and local supporters have kept a vigil outside the property, where their livestock have remained in spite a separate court order for their removal.

Details of the settlement were not revealed.

The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, had described the eviction as "unacceptable and unwarranted", and IFA members mounted pickets on local branch offices of Irish Nationwide.