Courts

Kerry GAA claims exclusion from ‘golden visa’ scheme will see it lose €27m in donations

Organisation says Government ‘moved the goalposts’ when it ruled investor under now defunct programme could not transfer projects

Kerry GAA argues it will potentially lose at least €27 million in donations committed towards the redevelopment of FitzGerald Stadium in Killarney because of the Government's decision. Photograph: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Aodhan O'Faolain
Mon Jul 1 2024 - 17:35

Kerry GAA has taken a High Court challenge against the Minister for Justice’s refusal to include its application in the now-defunct Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP).

The organisation claims the refusal to include it in the scheme, which saw non-EEA citizens who invested in certain programmes receive visas allowing them to reside in Ireland, will result in the potential loss of at least €27 million in donations already committed towards the redevelopment of FitzGerald Stadium in Killarney.

It further claims that an additional €11.6 million of new donations Kerry GAA has identified have also been placed in jeopardy by the Minister’s decision.

The investor programme, which was also known as the Golden Visa Scheme, was scrapped in February of last year.

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Kerry GAA’s judicial review is one of several similar actions brought by voluntary bodies that are pending before the court.

In its submissions, Kerry GAA said before the scheme was scrapped it had submitted proposals in two parts, for administrative purposes, regarding its plans to develop a ‘centre of excellence’ and to redevelop FitzGerald Stadium. It claims it has been working on the wider project since 2022.

The application for the centre of excellence was submitted before the Government announced it was ending the scheme.

Kerry GAA said, in relation to the application regarding the stadium, it had secured a lead investor to donate to a project, under an endowment involving either the arts, culture, sports, or education in Ireland. It claims that after the Government’s decision regarding the scheme, it had to rush to submit the second part of its plan on February 15th of last year.

Its lead investor, it claims, was part of another project but was happy to be the lead investor in relation to the stadium.

Last January Kerry GAA said its application regarding the stadium was refused by the Minister on the grounds that “no valid investor application was submitted” and that the matter could not be progressed any further.

The Minister’s decision also stated that an investor in the programme “must be new” rather than someone “already connected to another project who wishes to transfer projects”. Transfers of investors between projects can only occur when there is at least one investor already in place in relation to the receiving project, the decision further added.

Kerry GAA claims that the decision was flawed an should be set aside. It claims that it is unreasonable, unfair and in breach of its legitimate expectations that the application would be accepted.

It claims that the Minister “moved the goalposts” as that this was the first time in the history of the scheme that such a ground was used by the Minister as a basis for refusing to include an applicant in the scheme.

In its action, against the Minister, Ireland and the Attorney General Kerry GAA seeks various orders and reliefs including an order quashing the decision of January 24th last that its application was not deemed eligible.

It also seeks declarations including that the decision was made without lawful authority, without jurisdiction, was unreasonable, was contrary to the Irish Constitutional rights, the European Convention on Human Rights regarding Kerry GAA’s right to legitimate expectation.

Kerry GAA further seeks damages to reflect the donations and expenses it incurred, which it claims it has lost because of the Minister’s decision.

The matter on Monday came before Mr Justice Garrett Simons, who said he had some concerns regarding the application. Adjourning the application, he told Kerry GAA’s lawyers to provide further documentation in support of the application when the matter returns before the court later this month.

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