In a country rightly focused on how public assets are used, it is surprising how little attention is being paid to a county council selling €2.3 million worth of public land to an unnamed US businessman of considerable means for just €50,000.
In order to enable a €30 million private investment into Waterford Airport, the local council will be disposing of an 84-hectare landholding. This is to allow for the extension of the runway to allow jet aircraft to land in the southeast in a bid to attract commercial carriers.
Waterford City and County Council has helped to fund shortfalls at the airport since 2016 and will be forgiving a loan of €670,000 as well as waiving a small minority shareholding in the airport to enable the investment.
This is in addition to disposing of the 84-hectares, which have been valued at €2.295 million by independent real estate agent Avison Young. The agreement does include a clause that the sale of the land will only take place upon completion of the development.
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Yet the identity of the buyer remains a secret, including to the councillors who voted on the land deal. Why?
The only assurances given to councillors before the vote came from the investor’s legal representative, Mason Hayes & Curran, that the investor is a “US national with significant business interests and that they have the financial capacity to deliver the project”.
The only councillor not to vote in favour at the special plenary council meeting in October was Independent Joe O’Riordan, who abstained.
He told Cantillon he did so due to the “paucity of information regarding the investor to whom we were writing off large loans” and to whom the council will be “sacrificing almost 200 acres of land for a pittance without any dividend, percentage ownership, or any future promise of a dividend”.
He also has concerns about the council offering “greatly reduced [commercial] rates for the duration of the development”.
The council sees the development as improving access to the southeast and boosting the local economy.
Various names relating to the investor’s identity have been floating around in Waterford, with suggestions that they have connections to Donald Trump.
The situation raises two questions.
Why is the council selling public land at a knock-down price to an investor they will not name? And why doesn’t the investor want to be named?
Such secrecy is not desirable. Rather than deals being done behind closed doors, taxpayers and locals have a right to know the identity of the investor, who should also step out from behind the curtain and tells us about their plan.
