LDA does not ‘pay ransom money’, chief executive says after €2m bungalow deal

The Land Development Agency (LDA) “does not pay ransom money” or buy properties “willy-nilly” to eliminate legal challenges to the State’s housing programme, LDA chief executive John Coleman has said.Coleman was speaking after The Irish Times reported on Friday how the agency had paid more than €2 million this year to buy a dormer bungalow to settle a High Court case against the development of almost 1,000 homes at the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Co Dublin.Mark Leonard, who owned the house at 36 Friarsland Road, Goatstown, initiated judicial review proceedings in February against planning permission for the State’s flagship affordable housing development. He withdrew the case a fortnight later. It was the second legal challenge Leonard had taken to the LDA’s plans for the site.READ MOREThe previous month Coleman had said the LDA intended to press ahead with construction on the old hospital site “even if we do get a judicial review” taken against the development. When it had published its master plan for the site in April 2021, the LDA had hoped the first homes would be available in 2024. “We can’t wait any longer,” he said. “We’re moving on regardless.”Speaking to The Irish Times on Friday, following a sodturning event at the Dundrum site, now called Dún Brí, Coleman said there was “no deal” to buy the house in place when he had made his comments in January. Leonard’s house was one of more than 20 on Friarsland Road that backed directly on to the hospital site. Coleman confirmed the LDA has not bought any of the other houses on the road, nor has it bought any other houses surrounding Dún Brí. Time has expired for any challenge to be taken against the planning permission for the development.The LDA has not previously bought any other properties to stop or deter legal challenges, Coleman said. However, he was not concerned the purchase of Leonard’s bungalow for €2.15 million would expose the State to spurious litigation from property owners seeking “go away” money.“We don’t see any risk there. What’s very important to note is that the LDA does not pay any ransom money,” he said.“But I think it’s important to set our stall out in terms of how determined we are to move on with our developments. “We will always look to try and cut time out of processes and head off legal challenges where possible.”Dún Brí was “a landmark development, very important for the area, very important for Dublin, very important for the LDA”, Coleman said. “We don’t do transactions willy-nilly. We don’t pay any ransom money and we deal just purely on independent valuations when we acquire properties.”The LDA had taken a pragmatic approach, he said.“I would have a very hard time explaining to the future 2,500 people that need to live here in affordable homes, and the €30-€40 million additional cost that we’d incur, just to avoid a particular situation where we acquire someone’s house at an open market value,” Coleman said.“You have to be pragmatic and balanced in these situations and our job is to deliver homes, not to embed ourselves in legal processes for years.”Although the LDA has not previously bought out objectors, another State agency, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, last December agreed to buy a row of houses last December at Dartmouth Square in Ranelagh, Dublin, for a combined total of more than €30 million to end a legal challenge to the MetroLink railway line.The board of the National Transport Authority in August last year approved an undisclosed settlement to halt legal action taken against its planned BusConnects corridor from Swords to Dublin city centre.In June last year Irish Rail said it reached a “confidential settlement” with two parties that had taken judicial review proceedings over the €1 billion Dart+ West project.