CIÉ told the Government last year that there were only minimal opportunities to sell some of its property to part-fund investment in the rail network, it has emerged.
Despite recent claims by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, that tens of millions of euros could be realised from the sale of CIÉ properties, records in the Department of Finance show that the group has consistently maintained that the opportunities to dispose of land were very limited.
Mr Brennan said in April that he had instructed the State rail company to examine how it might raise €50-€100 million from its property in the next five years. He was speaking at the publication of the Government's Strategic Rail Review, which called for an €8.6 billion investment in the rail network over 20 years.
At that time, some transport sources expressed scepticism about the feasibility of large-scale property sales. Records newly released under the Freedom of Information Act confirm that the Government had been informed of such doubts last year.
CIÉ told a Department of Finance committee monitoring the National Development Plan that it had hardly any property outside Dublin that would be of commercial interest to potential buyers.
While the group realised €26.5 million from the sale last year of properties at Tallaght, west Dublin, and Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge, CIÉ told the committee that only two additional sites were of commercial interest.
These were at Carnlough Road, Cabra, and at a 41-acre site in the Spencer Dock area, where CIÉ has already entered a joint venture with the privately-owned firm Treasury Holdings.
"CIÉ state that realistically the above sites are the only saleable pieces of property in the Dublin area," according to the minute of a meeting of the monitoring committee on September 6th last year. A month later, the company told the committee that it had received planning permission for a major multi-storey office development above its property at Tara Street in Dublin. The proposed 14-storey development will be taller than Liberty Hall.
