Undeveloped school site bought for €525,000 - now worth <100,000

01-11-2010 06:31PM

dclane wrote: »

It stinks to high heaven! Why is the land deal even remotely related to government. I bet you 20 quid that the majority of posters here have not sold/dealt with the government when selling property or land. I believe he used his political position to arrange a land acquisition which he and his wife profited from. That is the issue.

Abuse of power in order to profit!

Eh, you realise he isn't actually in government? And I'll bet you twenty quid that the majority of posters that have had land to sell that would be of any use to the government, have dealt with them, or at the very least considered it as an option.

The requirement for a land purchase was publically advertised. The site was independently valued. Mrs Gilmore responded. There is no suggestion that the other 'preferred' site was even approached. I have no doubt that the OPW/DoE purchasing policy is a mess, but there is not even a suggestion that anything was done differently in this case compared to any other purchases they made

gent9662 · 01-11-2010 06:36PM

28064212 wrote: »

Eh, you realise he isn't actually in government? And I'll bet you twenty quid that the majority of posters that have had land to sell that would be of any use to the government, have dealt with them, or at the very least considered it as an option.

The requirement for a land purchase was publically advertised. The site was independently valued. Mrs Gilmore responded. There is no suggestion that the other 'preferred' site was even approached. I have no doubt that the OPW/DoE purchasing policy is a mess, but there is not even a suggestion that anything was done differently in this case compared to any other purchases they made

Is it not suspicious that the land purchase came at a time when the Labour party would not deny the possibility of a Labour Fianna Fail coalition for the next government?

01-11-2010 06:40PM

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

It was his wife, in the VEC, selling property to the VEC for a hyper inflated price at the arse end of the bubble when everyone and their dog knew things were going down the toilet. Highly inappropriate at the very least, and it says a lot about this country that this type of transaction is even legal.

Paint it any way you want, but a vote for Gilmore is a vote for more of the same.

His wife may have been in the VEC, she was certainly not selling to the VEC. They have absolutely nothing to do with the Department of Education or the Office of Public Works. And the sale was agreed in 2006 and completed in 2007 at the very height of the boom. Of course it was a bad purchase, but that is solely the fault of the DoE/OPW

01-11-2010 06:43PM

dclane wrote: »

Is it not suspicious that the land purchase came at a time when the Labour party would not deny the possibility of a Labour Fianna Fail coalition for the next government?

What? Are you seriously claiming that Fianna Fail said they'd make the land deal happen if Gilmore would give them his support?

gent9662 · 01-11-2010 06:50PM

28064212 wrote: »

What? Are you seriously claiming that Fianna Fail said they'd make the land deal happen if Gilmore would give them his support?

In my opinion yes.

Rabble Rabble · 01-11-2010 06:54PM

28064212 wrote: »

Way to not read the article:
"The site was sold by Ms Hanney in response to a public advertisement for land to build the new school."

Public advertisement, when she is in an associated Department? Nonsense, like those civil service advertisement for jobs.

It seems the labourites here are only interested in the other side's corruption.

01-11-2010 07:09PM

dclane wrote: »

In my opinion yes.

Wow, lucky she happened to own valuable (at the time) land that was in an ideal location for siting a new school that desperately needed to be built (that it hasn't been built yet is actually the real disgrace in this story, but nevermind). That really meant Gilmore could throw his weight behind FF like he did. And now that FF are desperately in need of mud to stick to Labour, it's good that they revealed their shady deal at this point in time.

Rabble Rabble wrote: »

Public advertisement, when she is in an associated Department? Nonsense, like those civil service advertisement for jobs.

It seems the labourites here are only interested in the other side's corruption.

An associated department? The Dun Laoghaire VEC is not an "associated department" of the OPW. It's not even close. The OPW have a well-defined procedure for advertising for land purchases. If you can show that the procedure wasn't followed, or if you can show that someone/anyone exerted any kind of outside influence on the process, then there's a case to answer. How many sites were there in Killimor suitable for siting a school on? How many were available for sale? How many responded to the public advertisement?

And I'm far from a 'labourite' (the ****ing unions? Those shower of bastards?)

Rabble Rabble · 01-11-2010 09:40PM

28064212 wrote: »

An associated department? The Dun Laoghaire VEC is not an "associated department" of the OPW. It's not even close. The OPW have a well-defined procedure for advertising for land purchases. If you can show that the procedure wasn't followed, or if you can show that someone/anyone exerted any kind of outside influence on the process, then there's a case to answer. How many sites were there in Killimor suitable for siting a school on? How many were available for sale? How many responded to the public advertisement?

And I'm far from a 'labourite' (the ****ing unions? Those shower of bastards?)

The whole OPW buying land for the Dept. of Education is in itself, confusing. Why does that happen? Does it normally happen?

EDIT:

It does apparently happen as a matter of course:

http://www.opw.ie/en/OurBusinessUnits/PropertyManagementServices/SchoolSiteAcquisitionProgramme/

/ EDIT:

What she was is a employee of the Dept. Of Education, the final purchasers in this case. No idea is procedure was followed, if it was we need better procedures. I am clear about this not being illegal, but it should nevertheless not be allowed. No civil servant, or public servant ( or close relatives) should sell to the government.

How many responded to the public advertisement?

Where was the public advertisement posted, for how long, and how obvious was it?

Look we all know how sometimes advertising a public sector contract is ass-covering.

ftnbase · 04-11-2010 02:13PM

Gilmore - all he and his party advisors want is power.
When one considers that his wife got €500K for something that is worrth €100kk now why should he want the hassle of sorting out the mess created by FF when his family are still in the golden circle.
God bless the taxpayers.

niallers1 · 06-11-2010 04:27PM

I must say I was shocked and a bit disturbed by this story.

I think this will do a lot of damage to Eamonn Gilmore and would even go as far to say that he should resign his position.

In the interests of fairness and transparancy no politician should be allowed to sell assets, land or services to a government department.

This as a miniumum must breach some sort of ethics code..

melekalikimaka · 06-11-2010 05:03PM

left wing.... what do you expect

galwayrush · 06-11-2010 05:29PM

No offence meant to the good people of Killimor, but the location of that site ,it was never worth anything cose to 525,000, even at the height of the Celtic Overdraft.:rolleyes:

Undeveloped school site bought for €525,000 - now worth <100,000

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