There was an unusual intervention in a south Dublin auction room yesterday when the former home of technology entrepreneur John Nagle went under the hammer for €4 million. Paddock Wood on Killiney Hill Road in Dalkey, a lavish Miami-style home once worth €12 million, was being sold at a guide price of €2 million.

Before the sale, Joan Nagle (wife of the former Payzone founder and chief executive) stood up in the busy Dún Laoghaire auction room to point out a number of defects in the house. She said she did not want to interfere with the sale of the house – which was a bank sale – but she wanted to outline problems she had had with the house for the next buyer. She also took questions from the floor.

Infinity pool
She said a €1 million air ventilation system never worked, the swimming pool was faulty, structural fins installed were the wrong size and eight doors in the house that opened outwards had been lost in high winds.

When Ms Nagle was encouraged to stop by the presiding solicitor and auctioneer, she asked the audience whether they would like her to continue, and there was general agreement she should. At one point, one individual announced loudly that he had had enough and left the room.

When the auction finally got under way, the bidding opened at €1.5 million and went up in increments of €50,000 until three or four bidders pushed it to €4 million, when the property was bought by an attending solicitor in trust for a client.