A deal which could yield a potential €10,000 windfall each for 240 members of a Co Meath pitch and putt club is on hold, after it emerged that children as young as eight were allowed to vote in a decision to sell the club to developers.
Navan Pitch and Putt club has been the subject of a bidding war since last year, making its greens arguably the most valuable in the country. It has also led to a rush of new members to the club in the latter part of last year.
The offers for the site by two rival bidders have divided opinion at the club, with a minority of members against selling the site, now valued at €20 million.
The future of the club's five-acre site at Beachmount in Navan has been at the centre of intense speculation since last summer when prominent local builders, Mr Cathal McCarthy and Mr Eamonn Duignan, made a multi-million euro offer for the site.
The pair offered €5,000 to each member of the club, €1 million for the club itself and a new site for the club. But last October Michael McNamara and Co, one of the country's largest building firms, came in with a new offer of €10,000 to each member, along with €2 million for the club and a new site less than 750 metres from the existing club.
The company had bought an adjoining seven acre site for €27 million, a record for the Co Meath town.
Mr McCarthy and Mr Duignan have now matched the McNamara offer.
The intense interest in the site has seen a rush of new members, with numbers up from 100 this time last year to 240 last November when the list was closed pending a decision.
At an extraordinary meeting of the club, members decided by 110 votes to 90 to sell. More than 40 members of the juvenile section, for players aged from eight years into their teens, were also allowed to vote, if they were accompanied by their parents.
However, in the latest twist, reported in the Navan Weekender yesterday, it emerged that the club received legal advice which raises questions over whether the juveniles were entitled to vote.
Meanwhile, property advisers to the club have now valued the five acres at up to €20 million.
Ms Betty Garry, the club's secretary, declined to comment when contacted yesterday by The Irish Times.
However, sources in the club said that the question over the juveniles would not derail the sale. "A vote was taken, and the sale is going to go through and that's not going to change," one member said.