Donegal man Pat Kearney has spent over €70,000 in legal fees, having lost his court battle over an 8.5m x 2m strip of land due to mapping issues.

Kearney says this has been caused by what he believed was a serious mapping error when the maps were digitised in 2005 by the Property Registration Authority (PRA).

The strip of land provides entrance to his home, but lies parallel to his neighbours land.

“I was approached by my neighbour in 2012 and they told me they owned the land behind my fence,” Kearney explained.

“We landed in court with two different set of maps – his was 2012 and mine was 2003.”

“It was the only access I had to my property.

“The judge decided the 2012 map to be legal even though I felt it doesn’t reflect any of the features on the ground.”

The PRA previously told the Irish Farmers Journal that digital mapping resulted in roughly 4,500 mapping errors.

Several farmers and landowners have contacted this newspaper to share their stories of incorrect mapping, including 20ac of land swapped into a neighbour’s land folio following digital mapping.

Pat Kearney said that he is very frustrated by his situation, which has been long running.

“The PRA maps are based off Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) maps and I don’t understand how the discrepancy arose,” he explained.

“It’s absolutely crazy. Two lines on the one map cost me over €70,000 on this.

“There’s a lot of people across the whole of Ireland who are in the same boat.

“This issue is causing conflict between neighbours.

“You can’t have two boundary lines on the same map. I feel the PRA has issued incorrect maps and they don’t want to admit to it.”