Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has criticised the demolition of the Murray family home in Bohermeen, Navan, calling it a failure during the housing crisis.

He said: "For sure the law must be upheld. People are not entitled to breach planning regulation. In this case there absolutely needed to be a significant penalty. But watching a family home being demolished when 17,000 people are homeless is a failure. More so when you consider that between legal fees in this 20-year court battle and the demolition fees this week add up to hundreds of thousands of euro. This will be paid by the rate payers of county Meath. Much of which its hard to see Meath County Council get back what has been spent."

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Tóibín argued that authorities should have found a way to keep the building in use for people who are homeless or waiting years for housing. While acknowledging the Murrays own the land, he said some form of agreement should have been achievable and that demolishing a house in the midst of a homelessness crisis made no sense.

He contrasted the demolition with what he claimed was weaker enforcement in other planning cases, saying state agencies such as the DAA were in contravention of flight-path permissions with little action taken. He also alleged a Fine Gael junior minister had applied for a nearby house under false pretences without subsequent enforcement, noting the Office of the Planning Regulator indicated there was no mechanism to reopen that case.

Tóibín further argued that, if the property were an IPAS centre, it would likely be exempt from much planning law and still standing. He concluded that there were no winners in the dispute and that a different approach could have housed a family instead of leaving only a costly pile of rubble.