Haughey land 'should be organic farm centre'

Land surrounding the luxury mansion of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey should be made into an organic farming centre, it was claimed today.

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent warned against building houses on the site and transforming the area into an “urban sprawl“.

Mr Haughey and his family were reported to have made €45m from the sale of his home and land in the Abbeville estate in north Dublin.

Manor Park Homes confirmed last night the purchase of the property – which is regarded as one of the most prime building sites in and around Dublin.

But Mr Sargent warned today against plans to build some 4,000 homes on the 235-acre site.

He said it was prime land for creating a training centre for organic farming.

“This is not an area suitable for residential housing but it is an area suitable for horticultural training for organic farming,” he said.

Mr Sargent said the former Taoiseach had kept the land in “pristine” condition and that it was untreated by chemicals.

He added: “I would urge them (the developers) to think seriously about this land and to look at its strategic importance in the heartland of horticultural Ireland.”

Mr Haughey, 77, whose health has been causing concern for most of this year, has lived in Abbeville House, Kinsealy, Co Dublin, for more than 30 years.

It is understood the terms of the contract will not permit the three-times ex-Taoiseach to stay in the house until his death.

Earlier this year, Mr Haughey agreed to pay €5m to the Revenue Commissioners to settle outstanding tax liabilities.

The settlement comprised debts on gift tax, as well as interest and penalties, and followed what tax authorities called “long and complex negotiations” between them and Mr Haughey’s professional advisors.

The payment marked Mr Haughey’s second substantial tax settlement in a little under three years.

In April, 2000, he handed over almost €1.28m, including interest adding up to €637,000 in respect of an interim settlement relating to tax on a payment he received in the 1980s from millionaire Dunnes Stores chain owner Ben Dunne.

Mr Haughey admitted receiving the money from the businessman at a tribunal of inquiry into payments made to politicians, after initially denying he got the cash.

A subsequent tribunal indicated Mr Haughey, who is now understood to be suffering from prostate cancer, had received other gifts, amounting to millions of euro.

Mr Haughey stepped down as head of Government in 1992, ending one of the most controversial careers in Irish political history, which included an acquittal on arms import conspiracy charges after a Dublin courtroom trial in 1970.

The company now in possession of his property is 51% owned by businessman Joe Moran, with the remaining 49% held by DCC, a business support services group listed on the Irish stock exchange.