Council asked to clarify €1m HQ deal

FOUR YEARS after paying €1.14 million for a building to develop into a headquarters, Clare County Council has now spent more than that on consultants, the headquarters still aren’t built and Travellers have occupied the site.

The cash-strapped council's executive were yesterday asked to explain the deal, described as the "the liability of the century".

In 1999, the council announced that it was to transform Our Lady's Psychiatric Hospital into its new HQ after paying €1.14m for the building and 30 acres of land on the outskirts of Ennis. The council has paid consultants and security firms €1.6m for work on the site, which remains empty apart from illegal encampments.