Meath Council investigates potential conﬂict of interest in major land re-zoning

18 November/December 2020

MEATH COUNTY Councillor is under

investiation as his two children stand to

reap over €. million from the sale of

lands re-zoned by the Council just over

three years ao. Fianna Fáil Councillor,

Tommy Reilly, is now the subject of an internal

Council inquiry into his disclosure of interest in the

land re-zonin.

The lands at Liscarton, on the road from Navan

to Kells were purchased in August 2016 for a sum of

€500,000 from landowner, John Carolan. The lands

were re-zoned from agricultural to light industrial use

in July 2017 and planning permission for develop

ment was granted in June 2018.

Meath Council investigates

potential conﬂict of interest

in major land re-zoning

by Frank Connolly

NEWS

At the meeting in July 2017, when the motion to re-

zone the land to industrial use was proposed, Coun

cillor Reilly declared a conﬂict of interest involving

his family and did not participate in the vote.

The resolution to re-zone the lands was proposed

by Independent Councillor, Francis Deane, and sec

onded by Fine Gael Councillor, Sarah Reilly, and was

unanimously agreed by the 19 (out of 40 elected)

Councillors present.

The eect of the motion, which involved the Varia

tion of the Navan development plan, was to open up

35 acres of land at Liscarton, close to an existing busi

ness complex, for industrial development, thereby

increasing its value by multiples of its purchase price.

Lands purchased

for €500,000 in

2016 are put up

for sale for €4.2

million in 2020

after planning

obtained on

behalf of sons of

Councillor who

discussed their

rezoning

Lands at Liscarton, Navan for sale at €4.2 million. October 2020

November 2020 19November/December 2020 19

Councillor Reilly was not asked about the

nature of his conﬂict of interest by any of the

elected Councillors or by the senior Council

sta at the meeting. However, he has informed

Village that he absented himself from the vote

as his son, Ciarán, had an interest in the lands.

The purchase of the lands and the subse

quent transfer of ownership to Ciaran Reilly is

something of a mystery. An investigation by

Village shows that the man who successfully

bid for the property is not the man who claims

to have “ﬁnanced” its purchase.

At the time of the re-zoning, the land at

Liscarton was registered in the name of Royal

Active Business Solutions, a company whose

sole director was local businessman, Barry Al

der from Bective, County Meath. The company

was ﬁrst registered by Alder in August 2016,

just weeks after the land was purchased for

€500,000 from the previous owner.

Alder said he “ﬁnanced the purchase”. He

said he subsequently disposed of the land to

Ciarán Reilly.

Notwithstanding Alder’s claims to have

bought the land, it has emerged that another

Meath businessman made the ﬁnal and suc

cessful bid for the property.

According to documents obtained from

Smith Harrington, the Navan auctioneers who

handled the sale, the 34.54 acres at Liscarton

were purchased by Joseph Freer, of Gainstown,

Navan. They show that Mr Freer, who owned a

transport company at the time. paid a deposit

of €25,000 after an agreement was made to

buy the property for €500,000 in June 2016,

subject to contract.

This information is conﬁrmed in a letter

of 23 June, 2016 from auctioneer, John Har

rington, to Sheila Cooney, Tallans Solicitors,

Drogheda. Ms Cooney was acting for the ven

dor, John Carolan, of Navan, County Meath.

Harrington has also conﬁrmed that his ﬁrm

received the ﬁrst bid of €350,000 for the Lis

carton lands on 10 May, 2016. Fourteen other

bids were received “until the bidding stopped

at €500,000 on 14

June, 2016”, Harrington

said.

“In addition, there was also an oer made

of €550,000 subject to planning on the en

tire (property) and an oer of €90,000 on 4.5

acres only”, Harrington said. “On 22

June

John Carolan instructed us to proceed with

the straight oer of €500,000. We received a

booking deposit of €25,000 on 23

June, 2016

and sales advice note was sent to Mr John Car

olan’s solicitor”.

It is unclear in what capacity, or on whose

behalf, Joseph Freer was acting when he did

the bidding for the lands as he refused to dis

cuss the matter when contacted by Village.

When asked why he had bid for the lands,

as recorded by the auctioneers, Smith Har

rington, Freer replied: “It’s nothing got to do

with me”.

Asked whether he was acting on behalf of

the purchaser, Barry Alder, when he bid for

the Liscarton property, he said: “It’s

nothing got to with me. Ask my solici

tors”. The ﬁrm of solicitors acting for

Mr Freer did not respond.

Meanwhile, Barry Alder conﬁrmed

that he purchased the lands from

Carolan and sold them on, for an

unspeciﬁed price, to Ciaran Reilly.

He conﬁrmed that he ﬁnanced the

€500,000 purchase of the land from

John Carolan.

“I ﬁnanced it at the time. It was

me that put up the money”, Alder

said. He conﬁrmed that he then sold

it to Ciaran Reilly but refused to con

ﬁrm the sale price.

Asked by Village: “What did Ci

aran Reilly pay for it? You bought it

for €500k? Now it is up (for sale) for

€4.2 m. Either you lost out or…?”.

“You can say that again?”, Alder

replied.

Asked was there much of a dierence be

tween what he paid for the lands and what he

received from Reilly, he replied:

“No not much. I didn’t realise it was that

value at the time. I didn’t think it would be re-

zoned. I was hoping it would be”.

When it was pointed out that the land was

zoned while he still owned it, Alder said:

“I didn’t know it was going to be re-zoned…

Ciaran was a director of the company…Why

don’t you give him a ring?”

Ciaran Reilly refused to comment when

contacted. According to Meath County Council

(MCC) and the documents supplied by Royal

Active Business Solutions in its planning ap

plication of May, 2018, Alder and Ciaran Reilly

were then directors of the company. In this re

spect, Alder’s claim to have sold the land to

Reilly before it was zoned conﬂicts with the

documents ﬁled with MCC.

Getting the land rezoned

Within weeks of the sale agreement, Coun

cillor Tommy Reilly was involved in discussions

about the re-zoning of lands at Liscarton.

On 27

July, 2016, he attended a meeting

of Councillors of the Navan Municipal District

which was attended by ﬁve other Councillors

and the MCC head of ﬁnance, Fiona Lawless.

During the meeting, the Variation of the

Navan Development Plan 2009-2015, includ

ing the re-zoning of lands at Liscarton, was

discussed. Executive planner, David Carey

made a presentation which, the minutes re

cord, “included the context and reasons for an

objectives of the variation, the area’s econom-

ic advantages, the overview of the variation

and the next steps”. Among the next steps

discussed was to ensure that “Navan has ad

equate and aordable land zoned for commer-

cial and industrial development” and that “28

hectares at Liscarton would be added”.

Councillor Reilly attended further meetings

of MCC in May and July 2017 when the Liscar

ton lands were also discussed. At the meeting

of 29 July, 2017 he declared a conﬂict of in

terest and absented himself before the other

members present agreed to the Variation of

the Navan development plan which included

the re-zoning to industrial use of the 34.54

acres at Liscarton.

In response to a series of questions from

Village, the Chief Executive of MCC, Jackie Ma

guire conﬁrmed in a letter of 30 September,

2020: “I am currently reviewing the matter of

the disclosure of interest made at the Special

Meeting of the Council held in July 2017”.

Ms Maguire also provided the minutes of

earlier Council meetings at which the Variation

of the development plan and the Liscarton

land re-zoning were discussed and a number

of reports, commissioned by MCC ocials,

were presented to Councillors to inform their

Liscarton lands near Navan purchased for

€500,000 in 2016 are put up for sale for €4.2

million in 2020 after re-zoning and planning

permission were obtained

Tommy Reilly

20 November/December 2020

deliberations.

Company records show

that Ciaran Reilly only became

part-owner of the lands after

the zoning was granted at the

meeting of July, 2017 and full

owner following the grant of

planning permission in June

2018. Now he and his brother

stand to make €4.2 million

from the sale of a property that

cost a fraction of this amount

just over three years ago.

Ciaran Reilly, a son of

Councillor Tommy Reilly, ﬁrst

received shares in and was

listed as a director of Royal

Active Business Solutions in

January 2018 although he was

involved in its activities prior

to this. According to his father,

Councillor Tommy Reilly, his

decision to abstain from the

motion to vary the Develop

ment Plan in July 2017 was be-

cause he knew his son had an

involvement in the lands.

Ciaran Reilly was ﬁrst formally associated

with the company in documents ﬁled with

the Company Registration Oce in December

2017 some ﬁve months after the Variation of

the Navan Development Plan and the re-zon

ing of the 35 acres.

In January 2018, 50 shares in the company,

Royal Active Business Solutions, were trans

ferred from Barry Alder to Ciaran Reilly. Further

shares were allocated to Ciaran Reilly and his

brother Tomás, later in 2018, giving them full

ownership of Royal Active Business Solutions

Ltd.

According to Barry Alder, he sold the com

pany to Ciaran Reilly although he did not dis-

close the amount paid. The accounts indicate

that the company’s entire assets comprise

the lands at Liscarton which was purchased

for €500,000 in 2016. The shares were trans

ferred by Alder to Ciaran Reilly and his brother

in dierent tranches, the ﬁrst in January 2018,

according to the CRO ﬁlings.

In March, 2018, Ciaran Reilly and his father,

Tommy Reilly, along with their engineers, Col

lins Boyd Engineering, attended a pre-plan-

ning consultation meeting with ocials of

Meath County Council, including senior plan

ner, Patrick Gallagher. A planning application

to develop a new access to the R147 Navan to

Kells road, an internal road network, drainage,

electricity and other services on the site was

submitted and received on 17 May, 2018.

Four days later, on 21 May, a further 50

shares in the company was transferred to Ci

aran Reilly from Alder.

The planning permission was granted fol

lowing a site inspection ﬁve days earlier, on

26 June 2018.

In recent months, a ‘For Sale’ sign of auc

tioneering ﬁrm, Sherry Fitzgerald, has been

erected at the Liscarton property with a selling

price of €4.2 million (or €120,000 per acre).

According to the auctioneering ﬁrm’s website,

an earlier oer of €7.5 million (€200,000 per

acre) was withdrawn. In mid-September last,

the auctioneers conﬁrmed that an oer of €3.15

million (€90,000 per acre) had been received.

Background

The 35 acres of land at Liscarton are located

about four kilometres from Navan on the road

to Kells. They are adjoined by a small business

park which includes a Ford car dealership and

other industrial units. Meath County Council

owns land on the Kells side of the business

park. When John Carolan put the land for sale

in Spring of 2016 in order to pay debts arising

from a recent High Court action, there was sig

niﬁcant local interest.

Veterinary surgeon, Noel Foley, who has a

long established practice across the road from

the Carolan’s property told Village that he de

cided to make an oer when he learned that

nearby agricultural land was up for sale. After

contacting Smith Harrington, he oered up to

€450,000 against another, unidentiﬁed, bid

der before he withdrew when the asking price

went to €500,000.

He subsequently learned that Councillor

Reilly had declared a conﬂict of interest when

the motion to re-zone the lands came before

MCC in July 2017 and that Ciaran and Tomás

Reilly were now the directors of the company,

Royal Active Business Solutions which owns

the land.

“The land went up for sale for €10,000 per

acre (€350,000) which was a good price for

agricultural land at the time. I went as far as

€450,000 but then it jumped to €500,000 and

I pulled out. I later heard that Tommy Reilly’s

sons had the land with zoning and planning

permission”, Foley said.

Company records show that Barry Alder

was registered as the sole director of Royal

Active Business Solutions Ltd in August 2016.

The contract for sale of the land was ﬁnalised

in late August, 2016. Ciaran Reilly refused to

conﬁrm any details concerning his purchase of

the lands or whether he had any role in its re-

zoning in July 2017.

Councillor Tommy Reilly denied he had any

‘The sons of a Fianna Fáil Councillor who was

involved in various discussions at Meath County

Council about their re-zoning and planning are

now selling the lands

Ciaran and Tommy Reilly at the shop they owned until recently in Abbeylands, Navan

November 2020 21November/December 2020 21

thing to do with the re-zoning of the lands. He

indicated that he absented himself from the

vote on the Variation of the Navan Develop

ment Plan, which re-zoned the lands, in July

2017 because of a “family interest”.

Councillor Reilly has claimed that he had

no involvement in the re-zoning or in the

planning process relating to the lands. How

ever, he was present at a number of signiﬁ-

cant meetings of MCC when the prospect of

re-zoning the Liscarton lands and obtaining

planning permission were discussed. These

included a pre-planning consultation with his

son, senior Council planners and the consul

tant engineers for the project in March 2018.

Preparing the ground for the Liscar-

ton zoning

The formal proposal to vary the Navan De-

velopment Plan 2009-2015 including those to

re-zone the lands at Liscarton was ﬁrst made

in a report prepared by the Chief Executive of

MCC, Jackie Maguire, which was distributed to

elected members on 8 May, 2017. It included

a response by Maguire to submissions made

to the MCC on the Draft Development Plan

which were received before the closing date of

12 April, 2017. The report also contained rec

ommendations in respect of the submissions

received by the Council from a range of state

agencies, organisations and individuals.

The report was discussed at a special meet

ing of MCC on 29 May, 2017 which was attend-

ed by elected members as well as Jackie Magu-

ire; the Directors of Service, Kevin Stewart, and

Des Foley;Executive Planner Patrick Gallagher;

and other senior planning sta members.

Senior Planner, Wendy Bagnall, made a

presentation to the members on the submis

sions to the Chief Executive and her recom-

mendations. Among the submissions was one

from the National Transport Authority which

questioned the rationale of developing enter

prise activities at a location so far from Navan

town centre with few or no public transport

services to the site.

In a letter of 12 April, 2017 to MCC, the NTA

set out its “speciﬁc concerns” over the pro

posal to increase the amount of zoned em-

ployment land at Liscarton. Michael McAree,

Head of Integrated Planning and Data Analysis

at the NTA pointed out that the site:

“is located approximately 2km from the

contiguous Development Plan boundary and

at a remove from any other development.

There are no footpaths or cycle facilities

linking the site to Navan, while the distance

from the town centre would make it dicult to

serve by public transport, other than by inter-

urban bus services. In this regard, the Author

ity considers the new employment zoning at

Liscarton inappropriate as it is contrary to the

planning principles set out in Section 7.1.2 of

the Transport Strategy”.

He recommended that additional rezoning

at Liscarton “should be removed from the pro

posed Variation” as it is in not in line with the

Transport Strategy. While this view is reported

in the ‘Manager’s Report’ by Jackie Maguire,

she counters its recommendation by asserting

that the Transport strategy also supports “the

creation of employment in the town in order

to reduce the volume of outward com

muting…”.

A report commissioned by MCC from

town planners, John Spain Associates,

and completed in December 2016, rec

ommended in favour of enterprise de-

velopment at Liscarton given its loca-

tion near Navan and its access to the

N2 motorway.

“These lands are located to the east

of the town centre and comprise of an

existing employment area and cow plot.

The lands proximate to the area present

opportunities to facilitate the natural

expansion of existing businesses at this

location”, the report stated.

The Councillors decided to accept

the recommendation of the Chief Exec

utive not to change her proposals, not-

withstanding the concerns of the NTA.

They decided to accept the Chief Execu

tive’s recommendation to proceed with

the Variation of the plan, including the

land re-zoning at Liscarton and to place the al

terations made to the report on public display

for four weeks.

The minutes record that: “The Council

lors resolved to accept the Chief Executive’s

report and to place all of the material altera

tions to Variation No. 2 of the Navan Develop-

ment Plan 2009-2015 on public display for a 4

week period on the proposition of Councillor P.

Fitzsimons and seconded by Councillor J. Hol

loway”.

Councillor Tommy Reilly was present at the

meeting and was among the 28 Councillors

who accepted the Chief Executive’s recom

mendation, without a vote. He did not disclose

any interest in the land, beneﬁcial or other

wise at this meeting. Neither has he declared

any beneﬁcial or other interest in the lands,

or that he is a “connected person” under the

terms of the Local Government Act 2001, in the

annual declarations he has submitted to the

MCC register of interests since 2017.

On 19 July, 2017, a special meeting of Coun

cillors was convened to consider two Varia-

tions of the Navan Development Plan as con-

tained in the Chief Executive’s report agreed

some six weeks earlier. A total of 19 Council

lors attended, including Tommy Reilly. Director

of Service, Des Foley, Senior Executive Plan

ner, Patrick Gallagher, and other planning sta

members were also present on this occasion.

As at the previous meeting an MCC ocial re

minded Councillors of their obligations “under

Section 177 of the Local Government Act, 2001

and associated regulations in regard to ben

eﬁcial interest”.

When the meeting came to vote on the

variations proposed in the Chief Executive’s

report in relation to the Navan Development

Plan the minutes of the meeting record that

“Councillor Tommy Reilly excused himself

from the meeting at this point due to a conﬂict

of interest”. He did not specify, nor was Coun

cillor Reilly asked, the nature of this conﬂict

of interest. He did not reveal as required by

2001 Local Government Act that a “connected

person”, in this case his son, had an interest

in the lands which were the subject of the re-

zoning motion.

Among the Councillors present was Wayne

Harding (FF) whose uncle, Sean, lives in a

house adjoining the Liscarton lands, although

the property was not included in the sale.

Sean Harding has told Village that he was not

aware of the sale of the Liscarton lands until

after they were sold. He later discovered that

sons of Councillor Tommy Reilly had acquired

the lands. He said that he did not see plan

Lands bought by man who

claims he did not seek

re-zoning or planning. He

claims he sold them to

the son of a Meath County

Councillor

Brry Alder

22 November/December 2020

ning application notice at the site before the

permission was granted in June 2018.

“The planning notice was on an ESB pole

half-way between two gates. I didn’t notice it

at the time. It should have been on a gate go

ing into the ﬁeld”, Sean Harding told Village.

Councillor Wayne Harding told Village that

he was contacted by his cousin after the lands

were re-zoned and planning permission grant

ed for development on the site but was not

aware until recently that the sons of Councillor

Tommy Reilly were the owners of the land. He

said he did not recall that he was present for

the re-zoning vote in July 2017 or that Council

lor Reilly had declared a conﬂict of interest at

the meeting. He only learned afterwards that

his uncle, aunt and cousin were aected by

the rezoning.

“They have a small family cottage which

backs on to the land at Liscarton. I didn’t re

alise I had a voted on it until you told me”,

Councillor Harding, a former chairperson of

Meath County Council, told Village.

The Councillors who proposed and second

ed the July 2017 motion, Francis Deane (Ind)

and Sarah Reilly (FG) did not respond to ques

tions from Village.

Councillor Tommy Reilly said that he did not

have anything to do with the re-zoning of the

lands or the decision to grant planning permis

sion. He explained to Village how he believed

his son became involved in the property deal

with Barry Alder and why he made a declara

tion of interest on July 2017 when the land

was re-zoned. He said that he ﬁrst heard of

his son’s involvement with the Liscarton lands

when Barry Alder came into the supermarket

then run by Ciaran Reilly at Abbeylands in Na

van some time before the zoning motion came

before the Council.

“My son told me he was involved. He said

‘Barry Alder came into their canteen…that is

how it happened’. I said (at the Council meet

ing of July 2017) I want to absent myself, that I

have a relative involved or a family interest. I

do believe he (Ciaran Reilly) was involved in it.

He told me so.

“Whatever way he did the deal I don’t get

involved in that kind of stu”.

Asked had he discussed the re-zoning vote

with its proposer, Councillor Francis Deane be

fore it was taken he said: “I never discussed it

with anyone”.

Asked why the re-zoning of the land was in

the interest of the people of Navan, he said:

“It was for economic development”.

He said that a controversy which erupted in

the early 2000s over a property deal he made

with former FF press ocer and lobbyist, Frank

Dunlop “ﬁnished me wanting to know any

thing about land”.

In 2005, the controversy re-surfaced

when Tommy Reilly received the nomination

to stand for Fianna Fáil in the by-election in

Meath caused by the departure of former Fine

Gael leader, John Bruton TD, to take up the po

sition of EU ambassador to the US. Reilly was

forced to withdraw from the contest after his

links to Dunlop were disclosed. Dunlop was

investigated by the Flood planning tribunal,

and subsequently jailed after details of his in

volvement in corrupt payments to a signiﬁcant

number of elected members of Dublin Country

Council and national politicians in the 1990s,

were exposed.

Councillor Reilly named

as applicant

Councillor Reilly has consistently denied

having any role in the zoning and planning of

the lands at Liscarton. Yet, engineering con

sultants, Boyd Collins, named him as an ‘ap-

plicant’ in documents ﬁled with the planning

application by Royal Active Business Solu

tions which was submitted on 17 May, 2018.

The application form identiﬁes “Tommy

Reilly applicant” as among those who attend

ed the pre-planning meeting with his son, Ci-

aran; their consultant, Eamon Collins; and se-

nior planners, Pat Gallagher, Billy Joe Padden

and Wendy Bagnall; on 29 March, 2018. The

directors of Royal Active Business Solutions,

in which ownership of the lands were vested,

were named on the form as Barry Alder and Ci

aran Reilly.

When Village brought this to the attention

of MCC, it replied:

“Planning Application (NA/180507) was

made by Royal Active Business Solutions Ltd

on May 17

, 2018, with Mr Barry Alder and

Mr Ciaran Reilly as named applicants. Tommy

Reilly is not named as an applicant on the

planning application”.

It continued: “It is not unusual for Council

lors to attend both formal and informal pre-

planning meetings and consultations, as part

of their representational role. It is conﬁrmed

that Councillor Tommy Reilly did attend a

pre-planning consultation held on March 29,

2018”.

The Council did not state why Councillor

Reilly is described as an applicant in the plan

ning application of May 17, 2018 in the section

of the application dealing with the pre-pan

ning meeting of March 29, 2018.

In response to other questions, MCC pro

vided the following replies to Village on 14

October. The Council said that the site notice

Auctioneer says man who bid

for the lands is not the man who

bought them

for the Liscarton application was inspected

by its planning department on 22 May, 2018

and “was displayed in accordance with Regu

lations”.

This conﬂicts with the recollection of lo

cal people who claim the site notice was not

displayed at the entrances to the site for the

speciﬁed period, as required.

The Council insisted that there was no re

quirement for an Environmental Impact Study

under the relevant regulations, although this

is also disputed by residents who claim that

the scale of the development requires an EIS

to be carried out.

In respect of the investigation into the dis

closure of interest by Councillor Reilly, the

Council said that the “review into the disclo

sure of interest is on-going and is guided by

the provisions of the Ethical Framework for the

Local Government Service (Part 15 of the Local

Government Act 2001)”.