This article is from page 14 of the 2013-09-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE County Council yesterday decided to transfer almost € 4 million worth of property to a new government agency being set to act like a NAMA for local authorities.
It emerged at yesterday’s North Clare Area Meeting of Clare County Council that the local authority paid in excess of € 3.5 million for two parcels of land in Ennistymon in 2007.
The land, which totalled around 10 acres, was earmarked for the development of social housing, but only of the fraction of the land at Glen North in Ennistymon was ever developed.
The council is due to start repaying the loan used to purchase the land next year and face a bill in excess of € 260,000 for each year between 2014 and and 2034.
Councillors, including Lahinchbased Bill Slattery (FG), raised questions about how the decision was first made to spend the € 3.6 million on the land.
“To be hit with these figures today is something else. We have a 91 per cent take up in property tax in this country, and we are now being asked to pay back this money [€ 260,000 per year],” he said.
“This all happened before I was a member of this council but I am annoyed that this was a reserved function of the council. The councillors should have known that this much money was being spent back in 2007.”
Councillors yesterday agreed that they had no choice but to transfer the land, which is now worth a fraction of its original cost, to the new agency agency.
“We don’t really have an option but to transfer this land. We now need to ensure that the community groups, who all had plans to develop something on the land in 2007, get a chance to fulfill their plans with this new group,” said Cllr Michael Hillery (FF).
“A lot of community groups submitted plans for this land and we need to ensure these proposal are forwarded to the new agency and are given preferential treatment.”
Once the properties are transferred to the new agency, any arm of the Government – including the HSE and the gardaí – can apply to the agency for the use of the land.
Locals have been campaigning for a playground and a home soccer pitch for Sporting Ennistymon for a number of years.