Garda college golf club teeing up for legal row over land ownership
THE golf club at the centre of the Garda Training College alleged misappropriation of funds scandal is preparing for a legal row over its land. Members of the Templemore Golf Club met on Thursday following Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s appearance before the PAC about financial irregularities at the police training facility.
Templemore Golf Club is located on a site next to the Garda Training College in Templemore and was set up in 1971.
The nine-hole course sits on land leased from the OPW by a firm called Garda Sportsfield Limited which in turn sublet it to the club. Under this arrangement brokered in the 1990s the land was leased for 99 years and the club was obliged to pay an annual licence fee of about €6,000.
One of the recommendations of the audit report was that the golf course land be returned to the control of the OPW.
With the downturn and falling membership, club officials tried to renegotiate the annual licence fee.
Club captain Martin Bohan explained: ‘We were looking for a reduction in the €6,000 and we got a letter from a solicitor’s firm saying we would have to vacate the premises. That was two or three years ago. They never made it clear who they represented. We replied to them and they never replied.’
Mr Bohan said: ‘A committee is looking at all aspects of it. We’re only in the middle. Is the lease legally valid and was the Garda club entitled to sublet it to us? We’ve had no contact… all the hullabaloo relating to the OPW, the Garda College and the Department of Justice.’
One club member predicted the club will retain some of its 28-acre site but with some of the land likely to return to State ownership. The member said: ‘The club is owned by the townspeople, not the Garda College. It’s unfortunate. My prediction is that we are going to lose some of the land and we will be left with a four or five-hole course.’