O'Rourke consortium still in talks with bank over €853,000 loan

Meath football legend, Colm O'Rourke, said this week that he and his partners are still in negotiations with National Irish Bank (NIB) with a view to paying back a total loan of €853,463 to the bank, arising out of plans to develop a shopping centre, housing and other facilities at Clonmagadden, Navan. The former All-Ireland winner and St Patrick's Classical School principal said they were not walking away from their commitments. "We made an offer to the bank but it was rejected and we are still in negotiations with them," he said. The bank recently obtained a judgement against Mr O'Rourke, local county councillor John V Farrelly and brothers James O'Reilly and Joseph O'Reilly for the sum of €853,463. The money is due on foot of a loan taken out to cover the costs assiciated with securing planning permission for the development. Mr O'Rourke said they were still looking at how they can repay the loan and they still had hopes of securing planning permission for development on the site, as facilities were badly needed in that area of north Navan. He admitted it hadn't been a good week for him but said as they had still been in negotiations with the bank, he was shocked that NIB had gone ahead and published the judgement against them. Mr O'Rourke said he was disappointed it took Meath County Council four years to sort out the planning permission. that the landowner who sold the property had objected to the planning application and that Bord Pleanala had asked for further information, which cost the consortium a lot of moneym - and then the planning board had refused permission on a different issue altogether. The judgement was also made against Cllr John Farrelly, who said the planning process should only have taken two years, but it took closer to five and had been a disaster from their point of view. He said the bank had no problem lending them the money and had thought it was a great idea at the time. "We couldn't get planning permission and that left us in difficulty. However, we were men enough to allow the school to be built there," said Cllr Farrelly. Most of the site is currently farmland, but some of it was sold as a site for the new permanent building for Scoil Naomh Eoin. The proposed development was to have been built on what was originally farmland at Clonmagadden. When the four men bought the site, it was expected that planning permission would be just a formality as the Meath County Development Plan had earmarked the land for development, but objections arose and, eventually, Bord Pleanala refused permission for the ambitious scheme.