State transfers Galway and Westmeath lands to community and GAA groups

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has consented to the disposal of two parcels of State land, one at Laurencetown, County Galway, and one at Carn Park, County Westmeath, by transferring them to local organisations. The consents were published in Iris Oifigiúil No. 78 of 29 September 2026 under the heading Land Purchase Acts, and each notice opens a six-month window for compensation claims. The transfers take effect through the statutory mechanism that has governed the sale of lands vested in the Land Acts trust since the middle of the last century.

Both notices were issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which states that the Minister acted “by virtue of the powers conferred on him by Section 30 of the Land Act, 1950 and Section 7 of the Land Act, 2005”. The same legal formula is used in each case, and in both cases the gazette records the same consequence: as a result of the transfer, the trust set up under the Land Acts has ceased to be operative.

The two disposals

The notices set out the lands, their area, folio number and county in a schedule:

• Laurencetown, County Galway: 2.225 hectares, Folio No. 50722, transferred to Laurencetown Community Development Group CLG.
• Carn Park, County Westmeath: 2.595 hectares, Folio No. 13838, transferred to Caulry GAA Club.

The two parcels together amount to 4.820 hectares of former State land passing into the ownership of a community development company and a local Gaelic games club respectively.

Compensation claims and deadline

Each notice states that any person claiming to have suffered loss within the meaning of Section 30 of the Land Act, 1950 as a result of the disposal may apply for compensation. The conditions are identical in both cases:

• The application must be made within six months of the date of publication of the notice, that is, from 29 September 2026.
• Applications must be directed to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Lands Branch, Farnham Street, Cavan.
• The claim must relate to loss suffered within the meaning of Section 30 of the Land Act, 1950.

On that timetable, the window for claims in respect of both transfers closes at the end of March 2027.

Legal effect of the transfers

The notices confirm that the disposal is effected “by means of their transfer” to the named bodies, and that the transfer extinguishes the trust established under the Land Acts over the lands concerned. The publication of the consent in Iris Oifigiúil is the step that gives the disposals public effect and starts the clock for any person who considers that the transfer has caused them a compensable loss.

The two entries appear in the same issue of the official gazette, in the section devoted to notices from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, alongside statutory instruments and other official announcements.

Why it matters

The notices mark the formal end of State trusteeship over two small landholdings and their passage into community ownership, one through a local development company in east Galway and one through a GAA club in Westmeath. For residents and former claimants, the practical consequence is a fixed six-month deadline, expiring in late March 2027, to lodge any compensation claim with the Department’s Lands Branch in Cavan.

Source: Iris Oifigiúil, No. 78, 29 September 2026, Section I (official reference: Land Purchase Acts notices, Folios 50722 and 13838).