Ballisk House Donabate acquired by Fingal County Council

Ballisk House Donabate acquired by Fingal County Council

Cllr Adrian Henchy has welcomed what he termed as good news regarding Ballisk House Donabate. He said,” I am very pleased to receive confirmation this morning from the Director of Economic Enterprise, Tourisim and Cultural Department of Fingal County Council, that they have completed the purchase of Ballisk House Donabate (formely Donabate Credit Union) While the closure of the Progressive Credit Union was a major blow to our local community this is a positive outcome in that the building and site which was delivered by our local community many years ago now rightfully returns to our local community. The coming weeks and months will see firmer plans put in place for the future potential use of the building for our local community.My thanks to Fingal County Council for the thier diligent work in getting this over the line and for the support of my peninsula colleague Cllr Paul Mulville who has also strongly supported this campaign at every opportunity we got within Fingal County Council.” Cllr Henchy said regarding the closure of Credit Union in Donabate,” I have just concluded a meeting with Fingal County Council Director of Economic/Enterprise/Tourism and Culture Emer O Gorman and her officials also attended by my colleague on the peninsula Cllr. Paul Mulville and other Fingal Councillors. Emer gave a background to the sale of Council owned lands to the then Donabate Credit Union in 1995 to allow for the building of Ballisk House the home of Donabate & District Credit Union. This was a full sale of the land to the credit union and the council did not insert any conditions or buy back clauses on the sale of the land at that time. I took the opportunity to impress upon Emer and Fingal County Council the history of the iconic building, I am encouraged by the fact Fingal County Council are agreeable to reaching out to Progressive Credit Union with a view to keeping this building and site in retaining it for Community usage and I very much welcome the Councils agreement to fully explore this. I will also once again be writing to the Progressive Credit Union to request a meeting with the Chief Executive in order to impress upon him the critical need to keep this service operational for the peninsula of Donabate Portrane both now and into the future and to reverse the plans they have to close this vital service.”