State paid €23m for Harold’s Cross greyhound stadium

The Department of Education will pay €23 million to buy the site of Harold’s Cross Greyhound Stadium in Dublin.

The lands will be used to build a number of new schools to help cater for the growing population of children in the adjoining areas.

The department did not mention a sum when it announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the six-acre site from the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) earlier this month.

Following criticism over the non-disclosure of the fee involved during recent Dáil debates the board confirmed the department had made an offer of €23 million, which has been accepted subject to a contract being signed between the parties.

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The board said the agreed fee is in line with market valuation of the site and relevant guidelines from the Department of Public Expenditure, which must approve the sale along with the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.

The budget for demolishing the stadium and building schools is not included within the €23 million figure, and the overall price of the project will not be known until exact plans for the site are concluded by the department.

‘Sensitivities’

Speaking in the Dáil earlier this month, Minister of State Andrew Doyle said the details of the agreement between the department and the board could not be revealed due to "market sensitivities".

He was questioned on the subject by Independent TD Michael Lowry, who claimed to have been told by a former chairman of the track that the stadium was worth between €4 million and €6 million but that such a valuation was unlikely to be reached on the open market.

Originally opened in 1928, Harold’s Cross Greyhound Stadium acted as competition for cross-city rival Shelbourne Park, with major races regularly shifting between the venues before the former was shuttered and all racing activity moved to Shelbourne.

The board has estimated accumulated debts of more than €20 million, which it is hoped the sale of the stadium will help to address.