Failed land swap for cheap housing cost State €33m

The Department of Environment has claimed a land swap with a developer which will ultimately cost the State more than €33m was a “complex and challenging project”.

The Dáil spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, heard yesterday that the High Court awarded Durkan New Homes €32.6m in July 2012 over the State’s failure to transfer a site on Harcourt Terrace, Dublin, in return for the construction of 215 affordable homes.

Secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Geraldine Tallon, told the committee that the site, which was occupied by a Garda station, could not be handed over to the firm by the end of 2008 as stipulated under the agreement.