Louth councillors call for government meeting on land banks

Councillors at Monday’s October Louth County Council meeting heard calls for the Council to organise a meeting with Minister for Housing, Damien English and his officials, in order to address the issue of land banks owned by Louth County Council, for which the Council owe in the region of €60 million.

The Council is in the ownership of roughly 50 hectares of land banks, upon which hundreds of houses could be built. The bulk of the land banks were bought during the Celtic Tiger, and for which the Council is paying around €1 million a year to service, with payment for some principal amounts also falling due.

Raising the issue, Cllr Ruairí Ó Murchú said that he, Cllr Maeve Yore and Cllr Marianne Butler attended an event in Dundalk recently, where the Minister was in attendance. According to Cllr Ó Murchú, the Minister had indicated at the event that he was open to finding solutions to the land banks in Louth.

Cllr Ó Murchú proposed that the Council invite Minister English and his officials for a meeting to discuss and action solutions. His proposal was supported by Cllr Yore and Cllr Butler, with other councillors also voicing their support.