Land deal probe to take ‘some time’

NEARLY three months after a major probe was launched into a controversial land deal in North Cork, gardaí have yet to be formally asked to investigate it.

The investigation was sparked by a complaint from Pushkin Developments, which alleged that two bankers, who had purchased a 20-acre site from them in Deerpark, Charleville, were in negotiations to sell the land to the county council even before they bought it.

Senior officials in Cork County Council are understood to have made initial approaches to gardaí, to alert to them to the possible need for a criminal investigation, but to date they have not lodged a formal complaint.