Hogan to examine City Council’s €470,000 typo

Environment Minister Phil Hogan is to examine Galway City Council’s decision to write off a €470,000 debt because of a ‘typo’ on a document.

The Minister is said to have been “taken aback” by the story, which was first broken last Friday by our sister newspaper the Galway City Tribune and revealed that an error was included in the grant of planning permission for an estate in Doughiska.

The error meant that development levies (which at that time, had to be paid by the builder before each home was sold) did not need to be paid on nearly 100 homes, which equated to almost €470,000.

A spokesperson for the City Council said the local authority is still of the belief it would have been successful in securing a judgment against Harrmack Developments, but decided not to proceed because of significant legal fees that would have been incurred in the High Court against a company that is now in liquidation.

However, the ‘typo’ first came to light in 2010 – Harrmack did not go into liquidation until a year later.

And at a meeting at the weekend, Minister Phil Hogan told Galway city councillor Frank Fahey (FG) that he was aware of the story.

“He had read about it in the paper and was taken aback. I asked him to look into the matter, and he said he would definitely be looking into it,” said Cllr Fahy.

The error meant that development levies (which at that time, had to be paid by the builder before each home was sold) did not need to be paid on nearly 100 homes.

For more on this story, see the current edition of the Connacht Sentinel