Debts that cost a county council €254,000 a year to service appear to have been a factor in the 'blank cheque' given to developers, writes Frank McDonald
Garret FitzGerald could not have imagined what would happen to Co Monaghan's Hope Castle demesne in 1981 when, as Taoiseach, he formally opened it as a regional park, saying he was delighted to be handing it back to the people of Castleblayney.
Within 15 years the dream of developing the scenic lakeland demesne as a tourism amenity to rival the lakes of Killarney had turned sour.
The caravan park installed by the county council had become so run down that "you wouldn't let a dog into it", as one local campaigner put it.
Mr Joe Brennan, backbone of the Lough Muckno Action Committee who was later elected as an independent member of Castleblayney UDC, discovered in 1997 that the county manager, Mr Joe Gavin, had arranged to lease the park to a London-based property company.
Haringbrook Properties Ltd, controlled by Irish émigrés, did not endear itself to local people by notifying them that "as a private estate, public access will be maintained as it has been in the past, that is, by invitation only" and that it was not prepared to discuss its own plans.
In 1996, Haringbrook secured planning permission to develop 88 chalets and an 18-hole golf course in Concra Wood, a prominently located wooded area owned by Coillte, the State forestry company, despite the fact that it was zoned "high amenity" in the county plan.
Haringbrook also had plans to develop 51 houses on the derelict caravan park site.
The Lough Muckno Action Committee assumed these would be holiday homes, but subsequently discovered they were being offered for sale to private buyers by estate agents in Dundalk.
The county council, which approved this scheme in May 1997, imposed a levy of £4,000 (€5,079) a site, yielding a total of £204,000 (€259,000). "In return, it seems that the company got a blank cheque to do what it likes [with Hope Castle demesne]," Mr Brennan said at the time.
According to Mr Gavin, the arrangement with Haringbrook was designed to "extricate" the county council from a situation which had led to debts that cost £200,000 (€254,000) a year to service.
This would have been a substantial burden for any local authority.
The former county manager said it would be "tragic" if the developers were "frightened off" by objections.