Steve Staunton, the former Ireland football manager, has been forced to return an €800 deposit he withheld from tenants of a house he owns in Dundalk, Co Louth.
Kevin O’Connell and Isabel Buitron Rivera moved out of his Willow Grove, Dundalk property last year after giving notice, but their landlord refused to return a deposit of €800.
The tenants referred the dispute to the Private Residential Tenancies Board late last year, after failing to reach an agreement with Staunton. On February 16, the board ruled that Staunton had “unjustifiably retained” the deposit and ordered him to return it.
Staunton, who was sacked from his last role in football management at Darlington last year when the team slipped to the foot of England’s League Two table, could not be reached by phone last week and did not reply to an email request.
He previously owned the rental property with his wife, Joanne, but he became the sole owner in 2006 after they split. The former footballer’s parents live nearby.
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While the board publishes determinations and tribunal reports from cases in which it adjudicates, Staunton requested that his name be “redacted” — deleted and replaced with an X — claiming that posting his name online would be a breach of his rights under data protection laws.
The board allowed Staunton to have his name removed from its website, but it is still on the original documents in its Dublin office.
The former Liverpool and Aston Villa defender, who won 102 Ireland caps, owns residential and commercial property in Louth and Dublin. Greenpark Properties, of which he is a director, has mortgages for units in Dundalk Shopping Centre and commercial property on Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk.
He also has an interest in the La Touche building in the International Financial Services Centre.