A senior official has been suspended from his post by Cork County Council as part of its investigation into a controversial land transaction in north Cork in which the council negotiated to buy land for €11.6 million which had been on offer just months earlier for €8 million, writes Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent.
The Irish Times has learned that the official was suspended last week as the council continues to examine the planned purchase of 20 acres of land zoned for housing at Deerpark in Charleville in north Cork.
A Cork County Council spokesman yesterday said the council had received legal advice to neither confirm nor deny whether anyone had been suspended.
He refused to comment other than to confirm that the council's investigation into the transaction was ongoing.
The Irish Times has learned that the council's inquiry has broadened out from the land transaction in Charleville to look at other parts of the county to see if any similar transactions may have taken place elsewhere in recent years.
The suspended official is a senior official who has served for more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that senior council officials had a preliminary meeting with officers from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation last month after the council authorities alerted them to concerns about the land transaction in Charleville.
It is expected that the Garda will await the completion of the council's internal inquiry before commencing a full criminal investigation.
A Cork County Council spokeswoman confirmed last month that the reason the Garda had been contacted was because some of those involved in the land transaction were not council staff and the council had no authority to interview them.
Cork County Council began its own inquiry when the original vendor of the property, Pushkin Developments, queried why the council was planning to buy the land for €11.6 million from two banking executives just months after it put the land up for sale at €8 million.
Banking executives, Permanent TSB regional manager Brian Cremin and Cork city branch manager Denis O'Reilly agreed to buy the land from Pushkin Developments last November for €8 million but had already started negotiations to sell it to the council for €11.6 million.
Following the query from John Daly of Pushkin Developments, Cork County Manager Maurice Moloney launched an inquiry and put a freeze on the deal with Mr Cremin and Mr O'Reilly for the purchase of the land which is off the Limerick Road in Charleville.
Mr Cremin and Mr O'Reilly have since initiated High Court proceedings against Cork County Council over its failure to complete the deal with them.
No date has been set yet for the hearing of the case.