Written answers

Tuesday, 13 June 2006

Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Company Closures

9:00 pm

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 416: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 298 of 29 January 2003 if the property that was held by a company (details supplied) on Haulbowline Island under a lease dated 22 May 1996 and made between the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and the company has been disclaimed through the courts following the voluntary liquidation of a company; the situation regarding the ownership or control of this property; the size of the property; his future plans for the property; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22726/06]

Photo of Dick RocheDick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The case in question was one in which the liquidator of the company initiated proceedings to disclaim the lease, granted by the State through the Departments of Finance, and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on a site of total area in the region of 20 hectares at Haulbowline, Cobh, County Cork, under Section 290 of the Companies Acts, on the basis that the lease constituted "onerous property".

Ultimately, the lease of the site was not disclaimed through the courts as the liquidator in the intervening period exercised a break clause in the lease. Notwithstanding the exercise of this break clause, the liquidator was constrained to remain on site until June 2003 in order to secure the proper removal from the site of certain licensed radioactive materials then held on site. On completion of this, the site reverted to State custody.

My Department was mandated by Government, inter alia, to secure and maintain the site, and to procure and have carried out an appropriate site investigation. The reports on the site investigation will help inform Government on the potential future uses of the site, and I will be reporting their conclusions to Government in the relatively near future. Pending finalisation of the reports, and the subsequent deliberations of Government, it would not be appropriate to offer views about the future of the site.

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