Parlon fails to deliver on property sales

NOT a single euro has been raised yet through the Government’s highly publicised sell-off of State lands and buildings.

The sale of the flagship property in the Office of Public Works auction of publicly-owned sites is only going ahead next month an entire year after Junior Finance Minister Tom Parlon announced its imminent disposal.

The PD minister, who prides himself on a claim to deliver results, was pictured with a 'For Sale' sign at the city centre site at the time.

The original €15 million price tag on the one acre site on Dublin's south side has dropped to €10m.

The proceeds were to be used to fast-track the provision of office facilities for psychological services for schoolchildren and to renovate and build garda stations, but the projects are held up as a result.

Amid great fanfare last March, the Laois-Offaly TD announced the site would be put on the market in the first of a series of sales of State assets. Mr Parlon first signalled his intention to sell off State lands to raise funds in 2002 and the prime site was highlighted as an example of an underused State asset.

Just a month later, at the launch of the OPW annual report in April, Mr Parlon claimed that up to €100m could be made in 2003 from the sale of State lands.

Yet a year on, not a single site has been placed on the market and no revenue has been generated.

Last night, Fine Gael education spokesperson Olwyn Enright said the rollout of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has been inadequate and further delays are unacceptable.

"If he is going to make pronouncements like that he should be able to deliver on them," she said.

Stating that it would be unfair to say there hasn't been progress on the sale of assets, an OPW spokesperson said there were other sites identified possibly worth hundreds of millions of euro and in some cases planning permission was being sought before the sale proceeds.

The long-delayed sale of the Dublin city site is due to problems with the title as it is only on a long-term lease rather than being owned outright.

Despite the failure to raise extra funds, an OPW spokesperson said the promised NEPS projects were provided. "This is an area he is trying to accelerate. It is not a delay as such," the spokesperson said.