Louth County Council to see €1m extra a year after scheme approved for land loans

Louth Chief Executive Joan Martin told members at the Louth County Council December meeting, that the Government has approved a scheme for dealing with legacy land loans around the country, which would see the local authority saving around €1 million per year in loan repayments.

The Chief Executive told members at the December meeting, that Director of Services, Mr Paddy Donnelly, had been "working day and night for the last couple of weeks" in negotiations with the Dept of Housing about all of Louth County Council's land loans.

Ms Martin said that the local authority would end up being refunded for loans that it had in respect of land at Point Road Dundalk; the remainder of the land at Dunleer, beside the housing scheme that was already built; and Ballymakenny West lands.

There would also be separate funding available under the PPP scheme that the Council is already part of, for the Ballymakenny East lands, and it would also be receiving funding for lands that it held at Louth Village and for the remainder of the land at Greenhills. There was also approval for other lands including for land at Mount Avenue and the Council "will get the funding back for that through the normal course of events."

Ms Martin explained to the members present that "at the end of all of this we will have received back, either now or when the schemes come, we will have received back funding for the vast bulk of the land loans that we were holding which is somewhat unexpected."

She added that it was a "very pleasant shock to get and will make an enormous difference to us in terms of not having to continue to provide every year for in excess of €1 million in repayment on all those loans."

The Chief Executive added that there would be conditions attached, and that Louth County Council would have to make undertakings to build "considerable numbers of houses."

"My understanding", she said, "is that we will be expected to be on the ground, if not by the end of next year, certainly in the earliest possible part of 2024. We don't have numbers on that yet but we're talking about a number of hundreds of houses that we will be expected to build on those lands in the years ahead."

The news was roundly welcomed by members at the meeting, Cathaoirleach Conor Keelan said that he thought they they could all agree that it was very welcome news coming up to Christmas.

Cllr Marianne Butler said she welcomed the “Christmas gift” from the Dept and that she always felt it was incredibly unfair that the council had to pay the money as it was following advice from the Dept to buy land at the late stages of the Celtic Tiger, and that it was bought at huge prices.

She put forward the idea that the Council should have a mini budget for the €1million that would be saved by not having to pay if off on the loans each year, adding that she would love to see it going back into housing, in terms of maintenance, retrofitting, for adaptations for people with mobility issues, and voids, adding that it was great that they would build more houses."

Cllr Joanna Byrne also welcomed the news and mentioned that when planning on how the saved money would be spent, she would like to see some of it go on doors an windows on the older housing stock. She agreed that she would like a discussion on how it would be spent.

Cllr Maeve Yore welcomed the news and said well done to Mr Donnelly and his team for all the work they put in, and asked how much on was outstanding on the loans.

In repsonse to the members, the Chief Executive said that the housing matters that they spoke of would be what they would be considering, mentioning that doors and windows are part of the retrofitting programme they carry out. She added that she would be happy to bring a paper to an upcoming council meeting, on the matter.

Ms Martin added that they had been carrying €56 million in loans but that she didn't have the final figure of what they were getting through all the different schemes, and when they would be getting it, was not all fully clear yet. Some would be in short term and some in longer term, she further added.