Almost €3m spent on Cluain Airne scheme

€3 MILLION has already gone into the new housing scheme at Cluain Airne and town councillors were told this week that the houses probably won’t be handed over to occupants until next year.
The date for the completion of works on the controversial development has continuously been put back, much to the frustration of local residents.
In a report to this week’s council meeting, following a motion from Sinn Féín’s Cathy McCafferty, town manager Bernadette Kinsella gave an outline of the costs already incurred. “Atlantic Developments took possession of the Glaise na Rinne housing development site on July 18 under contract, which provides for completion on December 9, 2011. The scheme comprises 22 houses; 16 of which are designated for sale as affordable houses, with the remaining six designated as step-down units.
“The final all-in cost of the scheme, including the per unit cost, will be determined within six months of completion of the scheme as required for the final account. Expenditure to date on the contract is €2,830,967, excluding design team fees, legal and supervision costs.”
She acknowledged that there are new delays. “The contractors are progressing the works satisfactorily on site. There has been some slippage in the contract completion date resulting from some unforeseen issues on site coupled with a sustained period of wet weather. Atlantic Development have notified delay events, under the contract, to the employer’s representative who is currently determining the contractual delay period. It is expected that this will be a matter of weeks.”
At the meeting, Councillor McCafferty said she felt an inquiry was desirable into the debacle. She said that going by what councillors had earlier been told, work should have ended in October but the month has ended without any sign of completion.
She said she found it incredible that the council still don’t know what the price of the houses will be. 
While Ms Kinsella said the county manager had not refused to hold an inquiry in a letter to a previous council meeting, Councillor Gerry Flynn said he didn’t agree with her.
“I put my best foot forward, I dotted the Is and crossed the Ts and in my opinion, the manager refused an inquiry.”
Responding to questions from the councillors, Ms Kinsella said the previous best estimate available for completion of the development had been 16 weeks. However, she said there had been “some slippage”. While she said she wasn’t sure how serious the delay was, she said it was probably about four weeks. Ms Kinsella said the final selling price of the units wouldn’t be related to the cost of providing them and that the price would reflect market conditions and the quality of the property.