IDA land review urged as 42% of property unused

DESERTED buildings and acres of undeveloped land earmarked for business are wasting taxpayers’ money, it was warned last night.

Up to 1,000 acres of land under the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) is lying idle across Ireland, much of it in towns and cities where there is an acute shortage of sites for schools, housing and playing areas.

It has also emerged as many as 62 properties (42%) controlled by the IDA are vacant and not in use.

The Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment was last night called upon to set up a review of IDA properties and lands.

Fine Gael demanded that Minister Micheál Martin begin a complete survey of IDA properties.

Of the 62 properties lying vacant, figures show 35 are being leased from landlords.

This is of “considerable cost to taxpayers” said Fine Gael’s enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

“I fully accept that IDA Ireland needs to maintain a portfolio of vacant properties and undeveloped land ready for use by future investors. However, it is now acceptable for so many properties to be allowed to remain vacant or that so much land should lie fallow,” added the deputy.

Vacant properties under the IDA include four in County Cork, seven in one Dublin business estate, eight in Galway, four in Donegal and one in Waterford.

Sites could be used for social and affordable housing, playing pitches as well as allotments, said Mr Varadkar.

But the IDA defended its use of lands and properties.

“Our property portfolio is constantly changing. We negotiate deals and need to have ones [properties] for national and international clients available,” said IDA’s PR manager Ruth Croke. She said the IDA were to “some extent” in talks with community groups and councils about alternative uses for sites.

Irish Examiner

www.buckplanning.ie

IDA was 'insensitive towards elderly couple' in land deal

AN independent inquiry into the IDA's handling of a land swap arrangement with an elderly Waterford couple has found the state agency was insensitive in dealing with the couple. The IDA also earmarked a plot that was a quarter of an acre short of what it had promised them, which the report attributed to an innocent mistake.

A preliminary report by Dermot Quigley, the former Revenue Commissioners chairman who conducted the inquiry, was presented to IDA Ireland last month.

It is understood that the report found that Joseph and Kitty Carey, both of whom have since died, should have been dealt with more sensitively but overall, it exonerates the state agency of any deliberate wrongdoing.

The IDA tried to persuade the elderly couple to swap their house - which was of strategic interest to the state agency - for a new house on an adjoining plot. The IDA needed the Carey's land to allow it to widen the entrance to its business park in Waterford. The couple, who were then aged in their 90s, were reluctant to move. The couple died before the contract was concluded and the property passed to their nephew.

Micheal Martin, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, sought an independent investigation two years ago after allegations from the Carey's nephew that the IDA had "attempted to compromise" the legal advice given to them, by offering the couple's solicitor work to "encourage" a decision favourable to the IDA.

The solicitor for the Carey estate has rubbished any suggestion that he would even consider such an arrangement - pointing out that he never acted for the IDA. Mr Quigley's report is understood to clear the IDA of any improper attempts to pressurise the Careys. However, it does make recommendations for new procedures on how the business agency - which is used to dealing with corporate clients - should handle transactions with ordinary members of the public.

It also emerged that the land it sought to exchange with the couple is significantly less than the .575 acres it promised in its contract. Mr Quigley finds that the shortfall was due to an error in map measurements. The IDA is currently working to resolve the discrepancy.

An internal IDA memo dated September 1999, says "I did indicate to (the solicitor for the Carey's) that I would recommend that the IDA use his firm for the conveyancing of the two pieces of land - Careys to IDA and IDA to Carey. The reason for making that suggestion to (the solicitor) was to try and 'encourage' him to make a decision in IDA favour."

It concluded "Mrs Carey is now permanently in a home for the elderly and I understand that Mr Carey, who is in his mid-90s, is also not in the best of health. We should try and get the building started asap while Mr Carey is still in a position to be party to the development. If Mr Carey dies or is hospitalised the whole deal will die and we will be back to square one."

Mr Martin later said the allegations raised questions about the "propriety" of the IDA. In a letter to the IDA in 2005, he noted that "any perception that the IDA sought to compromise the independence of the advice given to them could, I am sure you agree, be very damaging to the IDA's reputation."

Dermot Quigley's report into the deal was held up because the proposed land swap became the subject of two High Court actions. His report is understood to make a number of clear findings and recommendations, which have been accepted by IDA. The report will not be forwarded to Mr Martin until outstanding legal issues are resolved.

The IDA said this weekend a report on the investigation is almost complete and will be given to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in due course. The agency said it was precluded from commenting or from releasing any details of the inquiry because of two sets of High Court proceedings that are currently in train.

Sunday Independent