Kerry GAA claims it will lose €27m over its exclusion from now-defunct golden visa scheme

Kerry GAA has launched a High Court challenge over the Justice Minister's refusal to include its application for inclusion in the now-defunct Immigrant Investor Programme.

It claims the refusal to include it in the scheme, where non-European Economic Area (EEA) citizens who invested in certain programmes were given visas allowing them to reside in Ireland, will result in the potential loss of at least €27m in donations.

Kerry GAA says the money is already committed towards the redevelopment of Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.

It further claims that an additional €11.6m of new donations Kerry GAA has identified have also been placed in jeopardy by the minister's decision.

The investor programme, which is also known as the golden visa scheme, was scrapped in February of last year.

Kerry GAA's judicial review action is one of several similar actions brought by voluntary bodies that are pending before the court.

In its submissions, Kerry GAA said that before the scheme was scrapped it had submitted proposals in two parts, for administrative purposes, regarding its plans to develop a centre of excellence and to redevelop Fitzgerald Stadium.

It claims it has been working on this overall project since 2022.

The application for the centre of excellence was submitted before the Government announced it was ending the scheme.

Kerry GAA said that in relation to the stadium application, it had secured a lead investor to donate to a project, under what is known as an endowment, involved in either the arts, culture, sports or education in Ireland.

It claims that following the Government's decision regarding the scheme, it had to rush to submit the second part of its plan on February 15, 2023.

Its lead investor, it claims, was part of another project, but was happy to be the lead investor in relation to the stadium.

Last January, Kerry GAA said its application regarding the stadium was refused by Justice Minister Helen Mcentee on the grounds that "no valid investor application was submitted". It was told the application could not be progressed any further.

The minister's decision also stated that an investor in the programme "must be new" rather than someone "already connected to another project who wishes to transfer projects”.

Transfers of investors between projects can only occur when there is at least one investor already in place in relation to the receiving project, the decision further added.

Kerry GAA claims the decision was flawed and should be set aside.

It insists that it is unreasonable, unfair and in breach of its legitimate expectations that the application would be accepted.

It is also claimed the minister "moved the goalposts" because this was the first time in the history of the scheme that such a basis was used by the minister for refusing to include an applicant.

In its action, against the minister, Ireland and the Attorney General, Kerry GAA seeks various orders and reliefs, including an order quashing the decision of January 24, 2024, that its application was not deemed eligible.

It also seeks declarations, including that the decision was made without lawful authority, without jurisdiction, was unreasonable and was contrary to Irish Constitutional rights.

It further seeks damages to reflect the donations and expenses it incurred, which it claims it has lost because of the minister's decision. The matter came before Mr Justice Garrett Simons today.

The judge said he had some concerns regarding the application.

Adjourning the application, the judge told Kerry GAA's lawyers to provide further documentation in support of the application when the matter returns before the court later this month.

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