DUBLIN CITY councillors last night agreed to offload loans worth €30 million, which will now be paid by the Department of the Environment under the Land Aggregation Scheme.
The loans relate to about 30 hectares of undeveloped lands held by the council, which had been earmarked for social housing. The loans will now be transferred to the State.
The proposal was submitted to the North Central Area councillors on October 18th, at which time it was amended to take in a number of clarifications raised by the councillors.
They agreed that the report be submitted to the November council meeting, which was held last night, at which the motion was passed.
Under the scheme, the loans will be repaid by the Department of the Environment and the land will be transferred to the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency, which will determine the best use of the land in consultation with the National Asset Management Agency.
The loans relate to three sites held by Dublin City Council, the largest of which is a 13-hectare site at Ayrfield, off the Malahide Road.
It was bought in 1999 from Livingstone Properties and Kieran Finane for €18.8 million, on which more than €7.6 million has been paid in interest.
A further 1.7 hectares was bought by the council at Belcamp Lane from the Oblate Fathers in 2000 for €1.9 million. Interest on this loan has increased its value to €2.4 million.
A further 1.35 hectares of land was bought in the same area from John Francis Deering in 2000 for just under €1.7 million, the loan value on which is now over €2 million.
The council had initially agreed to sell 9.3 hectares of the Ayrfield lands for €60 million to Stanley Holdings to be used as a town centre for its Belmayne development and the planned growth of a new suburb of up to 30,000 people in the “north fringe” area of the city.
No contracts were ever signed for the proposed project and the developers pulled out of the deal two years ago.