Greyhound body faces extra €1m payout bill
This latest setback comes after it already forked out €2m on engineering work it thought it was having done for free and spent €1.17m licensing a car park it believed it was getting to use for a nominal sum.
The additional €925,000 agreement has only now emerged. This shows the IGB is obliged to buy the title to the 3.7-acre car park if the development firm asks it to at any point between now and 2038.
This €925,000 purchase price will be on top of the €1.17m licensing fee paid out in 2008. The car park agreement was signed between Limerick Race Company Ltd and the IGB on Oct 7, 2008.
This was four months after the board bought the adjoining 11 acres at Greenpark, Limerick, from the same company.
Before the sale contract was signed, the IGB set aside the advice of its engineers and its legal advisers who looked for parts of the gentleman’s agreement to be put in writing.
In 2010, the IGB opened its new €23m stadium and headquarters on the site. However, the debt associated with this development has left the organisation in a difficult financial state.
The Comptroller and Auditor General did demand responses from the IGB on the first two aspects of the gentleman’s agreement. These related to the €2m cost of filling the swampy site and the €1.17m needed to licence the 450-space car park for 900 years.
When it probed the issue, in 2009, the C&AG was not made aware of the additional commitment to buy the car park for €925,000. At the time, the C&AG was told the IGB would benefit from substantial savings because the semi-state company would not have to buy the car park land.
In a report, delivered to the C&AG by IGB chief executive Adrian Neilan in Sept 2009, the IGB said LRC was contractually bound to provide a car park. This was not the case.
The supplementary agreement, obtained by the Irish Examiner, says the IGB and LRC signed up to a €250,000-an-acre buyout deal in Sept 2008.
This was because of mutual dissatisfaction with a planning caveat imposed by Limerick City Council.
The planning decision was handed down a month after the sale contract was signed in Jun 2008. It stipulated that LRC did not have the right to share the car park when it developed its own commercial buildings.
Under the sale contract, LRC was obliged to appeal this to An Bord Pleanála but the IGB talked it out of such a move because it might delay its development plans.
The IGB did not respond to detailed questions on this issue but it did release a statement. “The Irish Greyhound Board totally reject the accusations and insinuations that arise out of the latest queries sent by the Irish Examiner re Limerick Greyhound Stadium.”
