House plan for elderly on Royal Tara site

The Royal Tara site in Mervue could be brought back under public ownership and used to build a quaint estate for older people on the city’s housing waiting list.

Galway City Council owns the property but leases it out to Royal Tara China Limited under four separate leases varying in time from 200 to 500 year.

The local authority has been urged to ‘buy back’ the leases, and use the site to help clear the housing waiting list.

Galway City Councillor Frank Fahy has proposed a motion that would commit the Council to buying back the leases and returning the property to the local authority.

Previously, Council officials brought forward a report which recommended the sale of the property to Royal Tara China Limited.

Last year, the Council was lining up to sell its leases to Royal Tara, which would bring a windfall of €535,000. That money, according to the City Council, was then going to be used to complete its share of the purchase of Galway Airport from Galway Chamber.

At the time, City Councillors were led to believe that they were “obliged” to sell all four leases but it has since emerged that there is only a legal obligation to sell two of the leases, not four.

Royal Tara Ltd is understood to be only interested in purchasing all four leases and not two. But Cllr Frank Fahy says the Council shouldn’t sell the lease and instead it should buy-out its leases from Royal Tara.

“They have planning permission for about 100 housing units on that site. Two leases are no good to them – they need four. But I think we shouldn’t be selling the leases at all, I think what we should be doing is a buy-back of the leases, which would free up this site to be used for the development of a housing estate for older people, single and widowed, along the same lines as Melody Court in Renmore of Suán on the Headford Road.

“They are wonderfully quaint estates and I think the Royal Tara site would be the ideal location for a similar development which would help to take older people, and particularly single older people, off the housing waiting lists,” said Cllr Fahy.

Cllr Fahy has been told that it would cost the Council €1.2 million to buy-out the leases, a figure he says is “quite interesting” seeing as they the market price for the property is quoted as €535,000 in an independent valuation.

“I find it strange that it wants to pay the Council €535,000 to buy the property from us yet we’d have to pay €1.2 million to buy-out the leases – does that make sense?”

The matter was briefly mentioned at the most recent City Council meeting but it was put back for a full discussion at the next meeting. Tara Hall, a building steeped in history, is a protected structure. The 1.9 hectares site includes several factories, sheds and outbuildings to the rear of Tara Hall. The land is zoned for enterprise, industry and related uses in the city Development Plan 2011-2017.