The developers of a housing estate in north Dublin last year paid €2.4 million to Fingal County Council to compensate the local authority for a court ruling involving the former owners of the land.
The site in question, Mountgorry, has been one of the most controversial pieces of land in north Dublin, and was the subject of extensive investigations by the planning tribunal relating to periods when the land was under different ownership.
In 1989, Dublin County Council was ordered to pay £1.9 million compensation to the then owners, builders Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Joe McGowan, after they were refused planning permission by the council and by An Bord Pleanála.
The compensation was the equivalent of the cost of more than 60 new three-bedroom homes in the north Dublin area. The site was not zoned for housing at the time.
The developers of land which was previously the subject of a compensation payment on a planning refusal have to repay that compensation if planning approval is eventually granted.
As a result, the current developers, Canon Kirk, who bought the site in the late 1990s, last year paid Fingal County Council 2.4 million. This would buy just six standard three-bedroom houses in the area.
The Mountgorry land was the subject of inquiry in 1974, when gardaí investigated links between a £15,000 payment by Brennan and McGowan to Mr Ray Burke and an application to have the land rezoned for housing.
The planning tribunal also investigated the compensation payment to the builders in 1989, and another £50,000 payment by its subsequent owners, Mr Tom Bailey and Mr Michael Bailey, of Bovale Developments.
Meanwhile, An Post has agreed to a Malahide address for the development. The builders, Canon Kirk, have rejected a claim that the Malahide address adds any value to the properties.
A spokesman for Fingal County Council said that it had received a number of complaints about the address and it considered the site to be in Swords.
Fingal County Council has claimed that the developers of Waterside Estate on the Mountgorry site were incorrectly using a Malahide address when the site was actually in Swords. Officials of the council have said that the Malahide address can add €100,000 to the price of the houses, a claim rejected by the current developers.