In Malahide, a broken fence has blocked a long stretch of footpath for months on end

A little after 8am on 4 March, a long stretch of a fence that ran between the Malahide Community School car park and the footpath running alongside it was collapsed onto the footpath.

Rusty nails poked out from some of the fence’s wooden posts. It had been  blocking the footpath like this since at least 25 October.

A spokesperson for Fingal County Council says the fence is on the Department of Education’s property, and the school is responsible for repairing it. The department pointed at the school. And the school says it’s the council’s responsibility.

Meanwhile, the months have been passing.

Passing around

On 11 February, a Fingal County Council spokesperson said property records suggest the fence is on school property.

So, they thought the school and the Department of Education would be in touch with each other regarding what is required to fix the fence, said the spokesperson.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that a broken fence is typically considered a maintenance issue.

Schools can cover the costs of maintenance and repairs using capitation funding, or the emergency works scheme, they said.

“The department has not received an application for this case,” says the spokesperson.

On 18 February, a member of staff at Malahide Community School said they thought that it was the council’s issue.

“The Principal believes that the fence is on Fingal County Council land, as they own the path that it is part of, ” the staff member says.

Maps on Tailte Éireann’s property records website landdirect.ie aren’t detailed enough to show whether the land owned by the Department of Education includes the strip between the footpath and the car park where the fence is rooted.

And, anyway, the website says the boundaries and plans there “aren’t conclusive”.

Asked to share the documents it was using to make its assessment of who was responsible for the fence, a council spokesperson said on 20 February that the college would seem to be the owner of the inner path with the fence over it.

While, “Fingal provides upkeep on the footpath that runs beside the R124”, the spokesperson said.

Fingal County Council didn’t respond to a query as to what happens if nobody takes ownership.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Cathal Haughey says, “We just need to make someone take ownership of it. Otherwise, it won’t get resolved.”

Green Party Councillor David Healy said responsibilities often get passed around, leaving members of the public to negotiate between different bodies which do not communicate directly with each other.

Healy said that, as he sees it, “if the fence is obstructing the footpath, then the council can take action”. “It is definitely a council issue,” he said.

Edging forward

On 4 March, a spokesperson for the school said in an email, that they had reported the issue to Fingal County Council in November 2024 and given follow-up information.

The school’s understanding is that it ceded control of the strip of land where the fence is supposed to be to the council when they got permission to build the current school building, they said.

“We are currently in correspondence with Fingal County Council regarding our understanding and hope to get a resolution as soon as possible,” they said.

They can’t repair the fence until it’s sorted who is responsible, they said.

But, “our Principal has instructed our caretakers to make the path passable again to the general public and this will happen tomorrow afternoon”.
On Tuesday, it looked like that work had already begun.