Latest blog - Mr Bumble
The Minister for Justice , Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell has personally intervened in the Dartmouth Square legal dispute in his Constituency in a manner that is prejudicial to the progress of current legal proceedings namely a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and consequent valuation arbitration.
The Minister has circulated a letter on 6th. Sept 2006 to the residents of the area with regard to the Dartmouth Square CPO case. In referring to the current CPO proceedings by Dublin City Council against Noel O Gara who acquired the Square from the Darley Estate, the Minister has made an unprecedented personal judgement on the financial value of the Square in saying that :
“No matter what view you take of the value of the land in conformity with the Planning Acts ,it is clear to me that it must at least have the value of say, a commercially run tennis club . While I am reluctant to put a commercial price on such a use of the land, it can hardly be less than one hundred million euro and could well be multiples of that. I note than Mr O Gara is claiming a value of 175 million euro (which I think is absurd”) ”
The Minister has in effect behaved like an estate agent talking up the value of the land . The effect of the Ministers intervention means that Mr. O Gara could now demand a higher land value for the Square beyond that of Green space / passive open / amenity space in any arbitration after a CPO confirmation , or in negotiations with Dublin City Council.
While the intent of the Ministers letter was to criticise Dublin City Council and presumably score brownie points for his own great wisdom, the unintended effect of his intervention has been to assist Mr. O Gara in obtaining a higher value for the purchase of the Square.
Like Mr Bumble, (the self important parish official in Oliver Twist) The Minister for Justice , Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell likes to think that he knows more about everything than anyone else.
Minister McDowell’s ill-judged intervention has done real harm to the public interest and played directly into the hands of Mr O’Gara.
The public would like more public spaces protected and more land acquired for public space. But this of course is not in keeping with the FF/PD agenda of giving developers and speculators as much latitude as possible