Keeraun, the site bought by Galway City Council on the eve of the property crash, has been a financial drain on resources for a decade.
And the controversial landbank in Knocknacarra, which is the subject of an Oireachtas investigation, will continue to bleed €220,000 from the local authority’s scare resources every year until 2020 at least.
Meanwhile, the city’s top official, Brendan McGrath, has agreed to draw-up a dossier about the site, after the Council came under fire for how it spent public funds.
Edel McCormack, Director of Finance, in a recent briefing to City Councillors, outlined in detail the cost of the 7.65-acres site off the Ballymoneen Road.
In response to questioning from Fianna Fáil’s Ollie Crowe, she said the purchase price in 2008 was €10.5 million. As of today, due to interest on the loan, the amount outstanding for the site is €12.48 million.
Ms McCormack said that the Council agreed to pay interest-only repayments on the loan from 2015. These repayments cost €220,000 every year for five years to 2020.
The site was initially purchased for social housing but plans never proceeded.
During the midterm review of the Traveller Accommodation Programme, it was included recently as a potential site for a halting site.
Cllr Crowe said it was “complete and utter madness” to propose a halting site at Keeraun and he vowed it wouldn’t happen as long as he’s on the City Council. He said by his calculation the cost of the site was nearing €15 million, which was “crazy money”.
Pádraig Conneely (FG) said: “It would be economic madness and reckless to put a halting site on that site. No, I’ll go further, it would be economic treason to put a halting site on that site, which cost €10.5 million. I will not put up with it.”
At the special meeting on the TAP, Senior Executive Officer, Dermot Mahon, presented fresh proposals for Keeraun that did not include a halting site, and instead proposed a group housing scheme that would also include houses for Travellers.
Details of the new plan for a group housing scheme were scant, and Councillors – including Donal Lyons (Ind) – were angered that it was ‘sprung’ on them out of the blue. The sketch of a map circulated at the meeting suggested there would be 23 social houses built on the site, and six of them would be Traveller specific.
Residents living near the Keeraun site were in the public gallery during the debate.
The Keeraun site debacle is the subject of an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee.
The PAC’s interest was piqued after reports in the Galway City Tribune suggested a possible loss to the taxpayer of up to €4 million on the property deal.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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