Councillors in Monaghan heard yesterday how a beauty spot, acquired by the local authority in 1982, led to council losses of more than £500,000.
The disclosure was made during a special meeting of Monaghan County Council which was discussing the future of the Lough Muckno Leisure Park at Castleblayney.
The 900-acre estate includes Hope Castle and Lough Muckno, which is dubbed "the Killarney of the north". It was subsequently leased in 1998 to a consortium of developers.
Last week the council adjourned a decision on the continuation of the leasing arrangement with the London-based Irish consortium, Harinbrook Properties Ltd.
The meeting was called following a protracted campaign by the Lough Muckno Action Committee, a group in Castleblayney opposing the building of holiday homes at the lakeshore.
The protest has already forced the revocation of planning permission by Castleblayney UDC for the chalets, an issue still awaiting a decision by An Bord Pleanala.
At yesterday's meeting a Fine Gael councillor, Mr Hugh McElvaney, detailed the losses amounting to £500,000 which accrued when the council tried, through a civic trust, to promote the beauty spot as a major North-South tourist amenity.
He said he found it hard to accept the attitude of people opposing such a project, which was worth more than £10 million in any town. He wished they had such a project in his native Clones, which was severely hit economically.
The council's legal adviser, Mr Enda O'Carroll, said he was awaiting an opinion from legal counsel regarding the leasing arrangement. He felt that the fact that planning permission was revoked for the developers meant an automatic extension of the lease pending the planning board decision.
During the 3 1/2-hour meeting, which the chairman, Mr Brendan Hughes, adjourned briefly twice to consider all the aspects at issue, three proposals were voted upon.
The first was a Fine Gael proposition which received the unanimous support of the council for forfeiture of the lease if the legal opinion which they were awaiting indicated the developers were in any breach of the agreement.
The second motion, which was lost by 12 votes to eight, sought a continuation of the present arrangement.
The third, moved by the Cavan-Monaghan TD, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain of Sinn Fein, sought the immediate issue of a forfeiture notice on the developers. It was defeated by 10 votes to six, with four councillors abstaining. Those abstaining were two Fianna Fail senators, Mr Francis O'Brien and Ms Ann Leonard, and two Fine Gael councillors, Mr Gary Carville and Mr Owen Bannigan.