Gilmore wife got €525,000 for school site now worth just €100,000
Monday November 01 2010
Educationalist Carol Hanney, who is chief executive of Dun Laoghaire VEC, sold the two-and-a-half acre site she inherited from her late mother to the Office of Public Works on behalf of the Department of Education.
Yesterday the site of the proposed new school in Killimor, Co Galway, was untouched and in the same state as it was when sold almost five years ago.
Mr Gilmore refused to comment directly on the sale last night. A spokesman for the Labour leader would only say the money belonged to his wife, and not to Mr Gilmore. "She is a private citizen and it is her money, not his," he said.
The revelation could prove embarrassing for the Labour leader amid growing criticisms of how the State paid inflated prices for school sites around the country during the property boom.
His own deputy leader -- finance spokeswoman Joan Burton -- last year hit out at "property tycoons" who made "a mountain of money" from selling school sites.
Mr Gilmore yesterday criticised proposed education cutbacks in December's Budget and said his party would be "very slow" to increase college registration fees.
"Education is something we have to see as an investment," Mr Gilmore told RTE Radio.
His wife completed the sale of the land for a new national school in Killimor in 2007.
It was purchased by the Office of Public Works on behalf of the Department of Education following a formal valuation.
Galway auctioneer and former county councillor Michael Regan, who represented the Killimor area for more than 20 years, said the most the property could hope to sell for today would be somewhere between €50,000 and €100,000.
How could this man possibly understand the real hardships experienced daily by working class people when he is a MILLIONAIRE???????????
ReplyDeleteI see you took this from where Whelan posted it to yhaahoo!
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