Council faces loan repayments of €1.2m

KERRY County Council faces loan repayments of €1.2 million for land bought at upwards of €230,000 per acre during the boom, most of which is no longer needed.

Interest charges on the loans in the current year are about €180,000, and repayments could hit €1.2m by 2016, according to county manager Tom Curran.

He said some land was bought at peak prices, but the council was unlikely to build houses in the foreseeable future because of funding cuts.

There are 89 acres in various locations, including Kenmare, Rathmore, Milltown and Caherciveen, for which the council raised €20.5m to purchase, which is now becoming a financial drain on the cash-tight authority.

The matter arose at the council’s annual budget meeting yesterday, which heard a recommendation from Mr Curran to transfer much of the land to the Government.

In this way — through what is known as a land aggregation scheme — the cost of the loans could be reimbursed to council.

However, he felt some of the land should be retained for housing in the future.

Some councillors demanded to know the initial cost of the land and, replying to Independent councillors Danny Healy-Rae and Brendan Cronin, council management revealed it cost €230,000 per acre and more in some cases.

The council has a waiting list of 1,500 qualified applicants for housing, with over 426 new applications received in 2011. It housed 244 families last year.

A total of 81% of tenants were solely depending on social welfare and the economic downturn was leading to an increase in requests for accommodation, according to director of housing John Breen.

He said there had been a fundamental change in housing services, in line with government policy, with most accommodation now being rented or leased rather than being built by the council.

He said the majority of people were in good quality accommodation.

Fine Gael councillor Jim Finucane called for a joint scheme with credit unions to enable people buy their own homes.

Mr Breen replied that the council has had discussions with credit unions on the issue. He also said 30 tenants bought their own houses in 2011.