The former Department of Home Affairs headquarters could end up back on the property market - just months after minister Bill Malarkey removed it.

Mr Malarkey has confirmed that Homefield, in Woodbourne Road, Douglas, could go on sale again.

He came under fire in the House of Keys this week when it was claimed a sale was near when, following his appointment as Home Affairs Minister, Mr Malarkey took Homefield off the market - to allow discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care over a potential use after it bought a neighbouring residential home.

The minister said police were now using the site for ’operational purposes’, but that would end in the near future.

’As a result, it may well be placed back on the market,’ he said.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) asked Mr Malarkey if he was ’satisfied that his decision to remove it from the market in the first place - given it had gone so far through the sale process - was still the right decision to make?’

Mr Hooper said a simple call to the DHSC would have established there was no interest and the building, put up for sale in 2015, could have remained on the market throughout.

’From my own discussion with the Department of Health, it has become clear that they never had any use and had no intentions of having any use for the property,’ Mr Hooper claimed.

Mr Malarkey insisted he stuck by his initial decision.

The DHA headquarters is now based in Tromode.