A consortium of house-builders has paid in excess of £30 million for 114 acres beside Blanchardstown Hospital in Dublin 15. It is easily the most valuable development site ever sold in the greater Dublin area.

The group of builders, who were advised by solicitors BCM Hanby Wallace, will be seeking planning permission for more than 1,000 houses and apartments in the grounds of the James Connolly Memorial Hospital.

A meeting of the Eastern Health Board is due to be held today to approve the sale which is being handled by Gunne estate agents.

Seven of Dublin's largest house-building firms which submitted tenders are believed to have offered between £22 million and slightly more than £30 million for the site. The land is to be made available in three tranches, some of it immediately, another section in three years time and the remainder in four years.

Although the site has 114 acres, about 42 are to be retained as open space. The planners helped to enhance the value of the land by indicating before the tendering process that they would take the parkland into account when deciding on the total number of houses and apartments to be allowed on the site.