The Industrial Development Authority wants to buy back land it sold to an American multinational computer company for the creation of a "clean air" microchip factory in Co Wicklow.
The 80-acre site, part of the former Burnaby Estate and adjacent to Greystones Rugby Club, was sold to Advanced Micro-Devices (AMD) a decade ago, after the firm agreed to establish a high-technology manufacturing plant on the site.
Wicklow County Council zoned the land for industrial use after assurances were given to the local community that the development would take place in a park-like setting.
However, a recession in the computer industry in the mid-1980s saw AMD, aided by the German company Siemens, establish the plant in the former East Germany instead.
Now the IDA, which received £1 million for the land in 1989, wants to buy it back and entered negotiations on this with the Californian company last year. However, with soaring land prices, the site may now be worth as much as £40 million. And while AMD, which donates rental income from the land to the Greystones Town Commission, last year indicated that it would be interested in the sale, there are fears that the position may again change.
A spokesman for the IDA confirmed it was in negotiations with AMD, but also said the Americans appeared to be looking again at their own requirements in relation to land use.
A local Fine Gael councillor, Mr George Jones, who led the drive to get AMD to Ireland, said the job-creation potential of the site was of importance to the north Wicklow area. Speaking during the Wicklow County Council draft development plan debates yesterday, Mr Jones said he hoped a suitable industry could still be found for the site.
Acknowledging his role in attempts to bring AMD to Ireland, Mr Jones said he had travelled to California, and to Austin, Texas, to meet officials of the company. He said such a company would be an ideal employment-provider in north Wicklow.
"It is imperative that we secure local employment of a high calibre for the young in the area, and this site is ideal for that use. I would hope that if AMD do not want it they would allow it to revert to the IDA so that the potential of the site can be realised," Mr Jones said.
Asked about the rise in the value of the site, Mr Jones said he hoped that the AMD land could be returned to the IDA for a realistic figure. "After all, they wanted it for a factory, not as a speculative investment. Nobody would suggest they lose out, but we would hope they would not think that the land could be rezoned for housing."
The current draft development plan envisages industrial use of the land, which would value the 80 acres at more than £40 million. If it were to be residentially zoned, the land could be valued as high as £80 million.
