Doomed land swap deal to cost State more than €33m

The Department of the Environment pushed ahead with a doomed land swap deal that will ultimately cost the State more than €33m, despite warnings from the Office of Public Works that the plan was risky.

The High Court last year awarded developers Durkan New Homes €32.6m arising from the failure to transfer to the firm a site on Harcourt Terrace in Dublin in return for the building of 215 affordable homes.

An additional €860,000 has also been paid towards Durkan’s legal fees but the full legal bill has yet to be submitted and will bring the total bill even higher. In the meantime, the Harcourt Terrace site, valued at the time of the deal at around €18m, was last year heard by the High Court to be worth just €2.8m.