Five Cork garda stations which closed over a decade ago are to be disposed of by the Office of Public Works (OPW) over the next two years.<\/p>\n
Four former garda stations are listed as \u201cbeing prepared for disposal \u2014 2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
They are Ballyfeard, near Kinsale; Ballygurteen, near Dunmanway and Knocknagree on the Kerry border, which have been closed since March 30, 2012. While Rathduff, near Grenagh closed on January 31, 2013.<\/p>\n
A fifth former garda station, in Castletownshend near Skibbereen, also closed in 2012 but is listed as being prepared for disposal in 2027.<\/p>\n
There are also eight former Coast Guard properties in Crosshaven, listed as being ready for transfer to Cork County Council for a social housing scheme. The Echo previously revealed that five of these properties are cottages that have been under OPW care since before 1993.<\/p>\n
The OPW has ownership of 16 vacant properties in Cork that are considered surplus to requirements, including some which have been vacant over 30 years.<\/p>\n
Minister of State Kevin \u2018Boxer\u2019 Moran said the OPW has responsibility for managing and maintaining approximately 2,500 properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OPW\u2019s policy in managing surplus vacant properties is firstly, to establish if the property is required for alternative State use, including the potential for it to be re-purposed for either Government departments or the wider public service.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, if no State use is identified, the OPW considers if open market disposal is an option, depending on prevailing market conditions,\u201d said Mr Moran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirdly, the OPW may consider community involvement, subject to a detailed submission that demonstrates that the community or voluntary group seeking to use the property has the means to insure, maintain, and manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Moran said there are currently 56 OPW-owned surplus vacant buildings and one leased vacant building. He provided documentation as to the current status of the 16 surplus vacant buildings in Cork.<\/p>\n
A former garda residence in Kealkil is also still in State ownership, with the documentation explaining that \u201ctitle issues\u201d had to be resolved prior to disposal.<\/p>\n
The final two properties are listed as miscellaneous. Bannow House in Carrigrohane is to be leased to Cork City Council, while alternative State use is being examined for a former OPW office on Old Blackrock Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Cork garda stations which closed over a decade ago are to be disposed of by the Office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19240,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-194092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cork-garda","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}