THE GOVERNMENT WOULD be interested in purchasing Conor Pass in Co Kerry but not for €10 million, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

The Conor Pass is an Irish mountain pass in the Dingle Peninsula, that ends close to Dingle town. It is a highly scenic drive and much loved by tourists, hikers, and locals alike.

The sale of the significant land holding has been advertised on the Conor Pass website and on Daft for a guide price of €10 million. 

It includes 1,400 acres in total. This includes 400 acres of mature forestry & 1000 acres of mountain grazing land.

“I think it’s fair to say that the state won’t be paying 10 million for it,” Varadkar told reporters in Co Louth.

“But we would be interested in talking to the owner about a reasonable price,” he said. 

“Because I’d like to see us extend our national parks, our national parks are a wonderful public asset and I’d like to see more of them and I’d like to see them made bigger,” the Taoiseach added. 

“But this is taxpayers’ money and, if there’s a reasonable price that we can agree, well, then I think we’d like to take it into public ownership, but the price has to be reasonable.”

Speaking yesterday on RTÉ’s Liveline, the owner of the pass, Mike Noonan, confirmed the guide price of €10 million and said it was his wish to keep all the lands together.

“I’m just looking for somebody that wants to keep it together,” Noonan said.

“It would be nice if the Government would look at it as far as a park or anything like that,” he said.

“Because the Irish people should enjoy it. I don’t want to break it up because there are so many hill walkers and everything that enjoy their time there. I would hate to have a person that buys it that is not open to the communities around Dingle,” Noonan added. 

Following on from the announcement of the sale, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne called on the Government to purchase Conor Pass.

Byrne said that the sale “presents a real opportunity for the State to purchase one of our most iconic and scenic locations and embark on a rewilding project”.

“In addition to its tourism potential, Conor Pass is also an important ecological asset and I believe that it is essential that we do everything we can to secure its future,” he said. 

“Its purchase by Government would provide an opportunity to work with conservationists and develop a plan for the restoration of the land.”

With reporting by Cormac Fitzgerald and Press Association