Reason sought for Cork county council’s €13m of unfit social housing sites

Cork county councillors are to seek an explanation as to how the local authority has debts of €13m for sites which it bought for social housing but were later deemed unsuitable for residential development.

Last week, the Irish Examiner revealed how Cork County Council had loans totalling €12,926,765 relating to the purchase of 12 sites that were intended for social housing, and how the local authority unsuccessfully attempted to move the loans off its books using a scheme described as a ‘mini-Nama.’

The Department of Environment and Local Government refused to include the 12 sites in the Land Aggregation Scheme because it found that the sites were unsuitable for residential development.