The executive of Mayo County Council will put forward a formal proposal to the elected members of the council this afternoon (Monday, April 13 ) for the council to take out a 30-year loan to cover the cost of buying a 17.5 per cent stake in Ireland West Airport Knock for €7.3 million, by seven local authorities.
The local authorities are Mayo County Council, Galway County Council and Galway City Council, Roscommon County Council, Leitrim County Council, Sligo County Council, and Donegal County Council. They agreed in principle to purchase the stake in the airport last year, with Sligo County Council taking care of the due diligence on behalf of the seven councils. This due diligence was carried out by Deloitte which returned its due diligence report earlier this month.
At today’s meeting it is expected that Mayo Council members will be asked to approve the borrowing requirement of €7.3 million, the total investment by the seven local authorities, as Mayo County Council is the lead authority on the project. Mayo County Council will recoup 65 per cent of the loan repayments from the other six local authorities, and the net annual cost to Mayo County Council will be €138,250 which already has a provision made for it in this year’s council budget.
