A woman who was threatened with a €12 million fine for building a bike shed in her front garden says she has now given up cycling.

Siobhán Kelly put up the shed in her front garden to store her mother’s wheelchair and two bikes belonging to herself and her son.

Not long later, she got a letter from Dublin City Council warning her to take it down – or face a €12m fine or two years in prison

She told The Pat Kenny Show the shed was extremely convenient for her family’s needs.

“Previously, I had [the bike] in the house and I was dragging it through the house,” she said. 

“Then I developed a problem with my back and I just couldn’t really lift; especially the wheelchair was rather heavy and I couldn’t do it.” 

Everything seemed fine until Ms Kelly received a “very frightening” letter from Dublin City Council telling her to disassemble the bike bunker. 

Failure to comply, she was warned, would mean a fine of up to €12 million or even imprisonment for two years. 

“I guess somebody complained about me,” Ms Kelly said. 

The letter was all the more surprising because the family had asked Dublin City Council for advice prior to installing the bunker in her front garden. 

“The guidelines, in hindsight, are pretty unclear and misleading,” she said. 

“The guidelines suggested to me that you cannot have anything forward of the front wall of your house. 

“So, to my mind, that meant my front garden wall - you’re not going to put anything within the confines of the path. 

“But within the confines of your own boundary, your own property, to me it made sense.” 

Statutory discretion

Looking back, Ms Kelly believes she seemed “like an easy target” to officials at Dublin City Council. 

“All councils have this thing called statutory discretion,” she said. 

“It means they have the authority that if they receive a complaint about something, they can go out, they can inspect or, in the case of mine, they never came out and inspected. 

“They made the decision [without inspecting the] site.”

Under the Government’s Climate Action Plan, the Government wants to slash emissions by 50% by the year 2030. 

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has prioritised increasing the number of people who cycle but Ms Kelly has given up her bicycle. 

“I don’t cycle now,” she said. 

“When I had to get rid of the bike [shed], I just couldn’t face bringing it through the house again and also, the problem with my back was really prohibiting me from doing that.” 

According to the CSO, only 15% of Irish people ever cycle.

Main image: Siobhán Kelly. Image: Siobhán Kelly.