Rates not levied on two wind farms for 6-10 yrs
TENSIONS rose between Councillor Declan Bree and the Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes over the Council’s failure to collect rates from two commercial wind farms over an 10 year period.
Councillor Bree had sought two reports explaining why efforts were not made by the Council to levy rates on Carrane Hill wind farm near Geevagh and Dunneill wind farm near Dromore West.
Carrane Hill wind farm consists of four turbines and was commissioned and commenced generation in November 2006.
Dunneill wind farm off the N59 Sligo to Ballina road in Dunneill, Dromore West, comprises 13 turbines, and was completed in July 2010.
It was only recently that the Council began collecting ¤24,000 a year from Carrane Hill and ¤89,000 from Dunneill wind farms.
Cllr Bree claimed at the meeting last Monday that the Council lost out on more than ¤750,000 in rates income because of their failure to collect rates.
Cllr Bree wanted to know why the wind farms were allowed to operate for over ten years in one case, without “any apparent effort being made to levy and collect the rates”.
Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes refused to provide the reports, claiming the matter had already been dealt with at a meeting of Sligo Municipal District. He wasn’t going to waste any more staff resources going back over 13 years since the wind farms were granted planning permission and was satisfied “it could not happen again.”
Head of Finance Marie Whelan explained that they “would have sought valuations from the Valuation office following the grant of Planning Permission and we had not received those valuations until Jan 2017.”
Cllr Bree that instead of telling him why the rates weren’t collected he was criticised for asking. “I don’t find the response adequate, it’s shocking,” he said.
Hayes said Cllr Bree was only making “cheap shots looking for headlines” and wouldn’t accept criticism of his staff.