‘Astronomical’ cost for housing land

By Dan  Danaher

The payment of over €3.6 million for 13.8 acres of land for social housing in Ennistymon has been condemned as “astronomical” by a local councillor.

Councillor Bill Slattery has expressed grave concern about the amount of money paid for less than 14 acres of land for social housing in 2007, most of which was never used for the purposes of which it was intended.

Councillors agreed to support the transfer of two parcels of land at Glen North, Ennistymon to the Housing and Sustainable Communities Limited under the Land Aggregation Scheme (LAS).

It is expected that this decision will be rubber stamped by members at a full Clare County Council meeting on Monday.

Clare County Council paid Matt O’Dea €2,634,596 for 9.12 acres at Glen North, which included the purchase price, legal and auctioneering fees. Interest on the loan of €494,822 has been charged to the end of last June.

The council is obliged to start making repayments on this loan from June 2014 and the estimated cost of funding this loan over a 20-year period is €190,000.

This land was purchased by the council for the purpose of constructing social, affordable, Traveller accommodation and voluntary housing.

A portion of the overall land purchased was used in the building of a Traveller accommodation complex but the remaining land has not been utilised.

The local authority also paid €1,038,774 to cover the purchase price, legal and auctioneering fees to William Stackpoole for 4.68 acres at Glen North, which was financed by a loan. Interest on the loan of €151,444 has been charged to the end of June 2013.

The council is obliged to commence making repayments on this loan from June 2014 and the estimated cost to the council of funding this loan over a 20-year period is €72,000.

With more than 91% compliance rate for the property tax in Clare, Councillor Slattery pointed out about two thirds of the whole property tax paid in the county was paid to two people for this landbank.

A number of councillors expressed their frustration and disappointment about the fact that purchasing land was an executive function, which didn’t acquire the approval of local councillors.

Councillors argued that effectively their hands were tied as they had no option but to approve the transfer of the land to HSC Limited to avoid paying loan charges totalling €262,000 for the two parcels of land over a 20 year-period.

All the interest payments for the first seven years are added to the initial capital outlay and the cost only kicks in if the overall scheme is built within the seven years or when the seven years elapses.

Administrative officer, Mairéad Corbett recalled there were 167 people on the housing list in Ennistymon when this landbank was purchased and noted there was a huge demand for affordable housing at the time.

In the midst of the economic crash, Ms Corbett told the meeting the local authority couldn’t proceed with plans for voluntary and social housing because the department was not allocating any money for the construction of these schemes.

While the council will not be left with any net cost, the cost of this land deal will effectively be borne by the taxpayer.

Councillor Michael Kelly said it seemed that a huge amount of money had been wasted in relation to the purchase of this landbank.

Mayor of Clare, Councillor Joe Arkins stressed that every effort should be made to facilitate the use of the land by local community and sporting organisations who may now be in a position to purchase some of this land.