Conor McGregor has lodged plans with Kildare County Council to allow him complete a large scale extension to his €3 million home near Straffan.
In a new planning application lodged with the council for the extension, McGregor’s architect Tom O‘Loughlin points out the application, to all intents and purposes, is the same as that granted permission by the council in 2022.
McGregor has pressed ahead with the extension to his existing home at The Paddocks after An Coimisiún Pleanála refused last July plans to demolish the five-bedroom home and replace it with a property complete with a cinema, bar and two swimming pools.
The home McGregor is partly demolishing covered 7,964 sq ft (739 sq metres) and the permitted extension is 13,131 sq ft (1,220 sq metres).
RM Block
The 2022 permission comprises alterations, including demolition works, as well as extensions to an existing dwelling and O’Loughlin, of Kildare firm O’Loughlin Architects, says the original planning permission “is now in the process of being implemented”.
Plans show that the home also contains a playroom, a bar, a diningroom, a family room and a butler’s pantry. The permitted plan also includes building a partially sunken basement under the relocated tennis court to contain a car-park, gym and ancillary rooms.
The current planning permission for the house extension will expire early next year and the latest application “is a slightly modified version” of the 2022 permission.
In the plans, lodged on April 3rd, O’Loughlin told the council the application simply seeks permission to carry out and complete the development after the 2027 expiry date. The request “is prompted by the fact that whilst the applicant’s obligations require his presence abroad, he would prefer to be on-hand to personally deal with any on-site issues which may arise”.
O’Loughlin stated that as a year or so remains before the 2022 permission withers, it is still possible for McGregor “to complete this permitted development”.
He said “although we forecast that substantial works are likely to have been completed before this expiry date, the present application seeks a greater degree of certainty, in order that plans can be made to complete the development in 2027 (and possibly into the year 2028), if the need arises”.
O’Loughlin stated,in line with the 2022 planning permission, McGregor has already demolished part of the existing dwelling on the land and has removed the tennis court from the property.
O’Loughlin said “we can identify no factors which would warrant withholding consent on the basis of revisions to adopted planning policy since the year 2022.”
He contended the impact of this development is no different than that of the building which was granted planning permission in 2022.
McGregor paid out €3m for The Paddocks in 2019 and he paid out €1.65m in June 2022 for the adjacent No 5 Castledillon.
In 2024, McGregor was ordered to pay Nikita Hand €250,000 in damages after a High Court jury found he had assaulted her in a Dublin hotel. Last July, he lost his appeal against the jury finding in favour of Hand.
McGregor has not fought at a UFC event since a technical knockout defeat to Dustin Poirier in July 2021, in which the Dublin-born mixed martial arts fighter sustained a broken tibia and fibula.
A decision is due by the council in May.
