The sale of a key building on Hanover Quay by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to rock band U2 for about €450,000 has been labelled “questionable” at a hearing of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The authority has acknowledged the sale of the freehold on No 16 Hanover Quay was not advertised on the open market but has said it was “satisfied the sale process had achieved an open-market price in line with guidance for the sale of such assets”.
The authority, which is being scrapped by the State, said auctioneers Lambert Smyth Hampton, acting on its behalf, and Jones Lang LaSalle, for U2, had brokered the deal. U2 is understood to have an interest in the property as a music studio.
Speaking at yesterday’s sitting of the PAC, Labour TD Joe Costello said it was not appropriate for the authority to be disposing of properties when it is on the verge of being scrapped.
“We have requested the docklands development authority and the chairperson to attend and I see in yesterday’s newspapers where one of the last acts of that authority. . . has been to dispose of a property for €450,000 at Hanover Quay – a very valuable property – to U2 without it being advertised publicly,” said Mr Costello.
“At this point in time, it hardly seems appropriate the authority should be disposing of property, certainly in what seems to be a questionable manner, for €450,000, which in that area wouldn’t be worth a semidetached residence.”
PAC chairman John McGuinness said the committee would contact the authority to inquire about its availability to appear before it in relation to the matter.
U2’s connection to Dublin’s south docklands – in the Hanover Quay building and the nearby Windmill Lane Studios – has played a role in attracting international and domestic investment to the area, and the recently published Grand Canal Dock planning scheme mentions the band’s role in also attracting tourism.
The Dublin Docklands Development Authority said yesterday evening that it had nothing to add to a statement issued earlier this week announcing the sale of the property to U2, and that it had yet to receive correspondence from the PAC in the matter.
