A judge has awarded damages of more than €4m against Meath County Council as a result of what he described as bungling and ineptitude of a high order.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly made the Commercial Court award against the local authority in proceedings taken by a property company.
He found that Darlington Properties Limited bought a site in Ashbourne from the council in 2006 for €4.5m after being told that a new road linking the land to the town centre was to be built on it.
However, the company later found out that the council had already granted planning permission on another site which made the building of the road impossible.
Mr Justice Kelly said this was an extraordinary tale of error after error being made by the county council.
He said that if the council had dealt honourably with the case, it might not have resulted in litigation at all.
Instead, he said the indefensible was sought to be defended giving rise to a large judgment and the costs of a three-day trial all to be borne by the public purse.
Much of that could have been avoided, the judge said.
The judge awarded damages against the council of the price paid by Darlington less the current value of the land. He agreed with Darlington's evidence that the land now was worth €500,000 and awarded damages of just over €4m.
Meath County Council released a statement saying that it noted the judgment.
'This matter is being taken very seriously by Meath County Council,' the statement said.
'When we have studied the judgment and assessed matters fully, we will then comment further.'
