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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
September/October 2015 13
The County
manager said
there was
a notice of
disposal made
by a vote of
councillors
to extend the
lease in 1998
but there are
no records of it
“
Y
ET another storm is brewing in
Wicklow following a decision by
county council officials to dispose
of its freehold on a significant commer-
cial property on the Bray seafront. A
number of elected members were
shocked to learn in recent months of the
disposal for just €, of the free-
hold on the property where the
upmarket Barracuda restaurant is
located on the town’s famous
promenade.
At their monthly meeting on Monday
(th September) councillors were
informed that the decision to sell the
freehold was made following legal
advice which suggested that the holder
of the lease had a right to purchase the
fee simple on the property.
The leaseholder, Jim Flynn, held a
-year lease on the property which
was granted by Bray Urban District
Council in . This was an extension
of a -year lease first granted by the
council to the previous owners in
which, council officials said, was con-
firmed by a vote of UDC members in
as required under legislation.
When the details of the unusually
lengthy -year lease emerged several
councillors were annoyed to discover
that there were no records of the
decision upon which it was apparently
grounded or of any discussions sur-
rounding what appeared to be the
extremely generous terms given to the
then leaseholders.
The property was developed as an
aquarium under the lease and
more recently by Flynn and others as
the popular Barracuda restaurant and a
coffee shop. Flynn has plans to open a
gastropub on the site but when he
sought to acquire the necessary licence
found that there were questions sur-
rounding the leasehold which he then
decided to purchase outright.
Ignoring calls from some councillors
for the Garda or the Attorney General to
be called in to examine the controversial
disposal of council property, without
any evidence of the necessary agree-
ment by elected members, either this
year or back in , the acting county
manager Bryan Doyle insisted that eve-
rything was above board and that the
decision was based on sound legal
advice.
He said that elected councillors had
made the original decision to allow the
now dissolved Bray UDC to grant the
lease back in . He also said there
was a notice of disposal made by a vote
of elected members to extend the lease
in but there are no records of any
such decision. The county manager con-
firmed that council staff are still looking
for the file containing the notice of
disposal. It was this decision on which
the -year-lease arrangement was
based in .
The agreement was signed on behalf
of the council by then town manager,
Des O’Brien and then Cathaoirleach and
current Labour TD, Anne Ferris. The
terms of agreement required the lease
to pay the UDC € per annum. The
agendas of the Bray UDC meet-
ings, which could establish whether the
necessary notice of disposal existed, are
also missing.
Doyle warned that if the council had
not disposed of the property to Flynn it
could be exposed to a costly claim for
compensation. The row was com-
pounded by the revelation from the
chairman, councillor John Ryan of Fine
Gael, that he is a partner of Flynn’s in an
unrelated consultancy business ‘Great
Place to Work’.
He stood down from the chair while
the Barracuda matter was discussed
and told Village that he had not been
present at a meeting earlier this
summer when the controversy first
arose.
Ryan said that he accepted there were
genuine concerns over the disposal and
fears that other valuable council owned
lands could be transferred into private
hands for little or no consideration and
for that reason had allowed the matter
on to the agenda for discussion at the
most recent meeting.
“I declared the fact that I shared a
directorship with Jim Flynn and I have
informed the ethics registrar of the
council to that effect. I have no interest
in the Barracuda restaurant”, Ryan said.
Wicklow County Council told Village
it was preparing a report for the Mem-
bers on the matter which will be
considered at a Council meeting sched-
uled for the end of September.
The row is the latest in a series of con-
troversies surrounding the disposal of
properties by Wicklow County Council
to private interests.
Officials in the Department of the
Environment are continuing their
investigation into the granting of valu-
able council lands to a company
controlled by developers Sean Dunne
and Sean Mulryan, in and ,
to facilitate their massive Charlesland
residential scheme near Greystones.
Wicklow auctioneer, Gabriel Dooley,
has submitted an extensive file to the
department outlining what he claims
were improper dealings between the
prominent developers and elected mem-
bers and officials of the council.
Elected councillors did not vote on
what the council has described as an
‘exchange of easements’ with the devel-
opers when lands were provided for
road access to the Charlesland
development.
The easements were exchanged for
€, according to the contracts agreed
at the time.
In July, Mulryan told the Oireachtas
banking inquiry that he was not aware
of the details of the land transfers and
said it was a matter for the county man-
ager at the time. •
No records of how seafront restaurant got right to unusual 250-year lease. By Frank Connolly
Affray in Bray
NEWS Bray
dangerous
