Council paid boom prices for land for M7

FARMERS ALONG the final phase of the M7 linking Dublin to Limerick have benefited from five-year-old property boom prices with payments by Laois County Council creating 11 new millionaires.

Figures released yesterday by the council in response to a Freedom of Information request show that the local authority paid out €54.9 million to a total of 135 landowners along the €347 million Castletown to Nenagh section of the M7.

The opening of the route last December brought to an end a decade of motorway building between Dublin, the Border and the regional cities.

The landowners – mainly farmers – have benefited from a clause in the legislation governing compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) stating that the price for their land is based upon land values when a local authority serves the notice to treat.

The notice to treat in the Castletown-Nenagh route was served in 2006 and agriculture consultant, Richard Rea, who advised 76 landowners on the route in CPO negotiations, said yesterday that agricultural land had fallen by 50 per cent since then.

The records show that four of the payments in excess of €1 million were paid to landowners last year with one of those landowners receiving €1.7 million.

The figures show that the highest amount received by a landowner was €2.89 million in 2008. A second landowner received €2 million, paid out in 2009. Since 2006, a further five landowners received payments of between €1.2 and €1.7 million, meaning a total of 11 landowners were made millionaires during the road building project.

The figures show that a further 29 landowners received between €500,000 and €1 million in payments, while 36 landowners received between €250,000 and €500,000.

Sixteen landowners received between €100,000 and €250,000.

Mr Rea confirmed that the local authority is bound to pay the price of the time when it serves the notice to treat.

Mr Rea said: “It is a double-edged sword. Landowners can also lose out if a notice to treat has been served at a time when land prices are rising.”

In total, the council compulsorily acquired 737 acres, that included 665 acres of farmland that comprised of 128 separate agricultural plots.