Cllr Adam Teskey.
FINE Gael councillor Adam Teskey has hit out at Limerick City and County County Council (LCCC) for acquiring by compulsory purchase order (CPO) a second-hand home in Adare for €1.2 million – double its market value.
Cllr Teskey, a qualified auctioneer, deemed the property in Gortnagrour, Adare, obtained as part of the ongoing N/M20 Cork to Limerick Project, “the most expensive social house in the world”.
From his own experience in property sales, he suggested similar houses in the area had a market value of between €500,000 and €600,000.
Speaking at this Tuesday’s meeting of the Adare Rathkeale Municipal District, the Fine Gael man had serious questions for the Mid West National Road Design Office and the Council’s Housing Department about the purchase of the West Limerick property.
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“In relation to when you develop a road, is it fair to say that everything within the red line is CPO’d, and everything outside is not deemed to be developed?” Cllr Teskey enquired, referring to files on the purchase.
“If that’s the case, what I want to ask is how many instances have you seen, or would you foresee in a road network, of local authorities purchasing lands or infrastructure beyond the CPO line?”
Cllr Teskey was informed by senior Council engineer Jari Howard that there has indeed been such instances under CPO in the past, but agreed that it “would be rare”.
Hearing this, the Ardagh native Teskey said he was “alarmed” to learn the local authority had purchased a home outside the CPO line in Adare.
“Year to date, I believe it’s the highest record on the property price register for a transaction with a private residential house,” Cllr Teskey claimed.
“There are similar properties in the area that have gotten €500,000 to €600,000. Are we setting a dangerous precedent? Because where the house is located, there are at least two or three other houses in the immediate vicinity that I believe now should be afforded the opportunities to have their houses conveyed to Limerick City and County Council.”
Teskey told the Council that he had “a problem when we set a dangerous precedent and have what I would call a gross manufacturing of value in terms of the reality it could achieve to the real market value of the house”.
He also quizzed the Council executive on its plans with the property going forward, and whether Mayor John Moran signed off on the purchase of the property.
“This could turn out to be not only the most expensive social house in Ireland, but in the whole world at €1.2m,” Cllr Teskey suggested.
“We’re told we haven’t money to cut a hedge or for grass cutting. We’re told we can’t get money for the roads. I’m perplexed, flabbergasted in relation to this.”
The Fine Gael man suggest that it was “absolutely unbelievable that we are purchasing properties for €1.2m and yet we can’t get a pothole filled for Tommy and Mary and Paddy – the decent ordinary Joe Soap of this country that we are put here to represent”.
“I have to stand up for those people and I want answers about this bizarre situation.”
The Director of Adare Rathkeale Municipal District, Vincent Murray, told Council members that the local authority’s Roads Department CPO’d the property in question.
“If they do take possession of it, they then have to make a decision on what they do with the house. At this stage, it wouldn’t be appropriate, as there’s people still in the house, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for it to be discussed in an open forum,” Mr Murray explained.
Fianna Fáil councillor and Adare native Bridie Collins told Cllr Teskey that she had enquired about the houses in the Gortnagrour area and was informed that they would remain empty until after the motorway project was finished.
“Then they would go back on the market for sale, but not until the project was finished,” Cllr Collins said.
