We have obtained a copy of the three DDDA reports by Niamh Brennan from the Fine Gael press office. The reports have been scanned, OCRd and uploaded and can be searched or download from the interface below.
The reports run to 216 pages, this is the only soft copy available it is therefore possible (but unlikely) that some pages are misordered.
The details were first covered by David Murphy, Business Editor with RTE, this morning.
Fine Gael have accused of John Gormley of a cover-up over the reports. As per The Irish Times: “The reports deal with matters to do with finance, planning and the board’s reaction to these matters. [Fine Gael Deputy Phil] Hogan said the planning report raises questions over the status of planning permission for some of the most well known buildings.”
Amongst the main issues detailed in the report are revelations that the Irish Glass Bottle site was never formally valued. It was purchased by the DDDA and a number of developers and financial entities in 2006 for more than €400m but quickly fell drastically in value. Those involved included Bernard McNamara, who has sued the DDDA claiming they didn’t deliver on promises relating the deal. Sean Dunne was also involved and also took the authority to court over the now-near-abandoned Anglo site. He won his case.
Labour says the issues of corporate governance can be put down to, amongst other things, Anglo – which had an interest in the site through its loan portfolio – having two members of its own board, Sean FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw, sitting on the board of the DDDA.
Further issues are also covered relating to the DDDA granting planning permission for structures which could be considered non-compliant and the absence of value-for-money audits being carried out.
BaNAMA Republic Poolbeg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qdRqFPGZw2o/S5eurZhGtZI/AAAAAAAACeI/MgDH4uarC2w/s1600/poolbeg-governance.jpg
We are an advocacy group, Discovery, the Dublin Interactive Science Centre project, who have consistently begged the DDDA (since 1988) to provide the promised major cultural attraction/museum element for Stack A, now CHQ.
We are once again appealing to the DDDA Board, to meet a May 8, 2010 deadline, for permission to set up a science museum in CHQ.
A Levy, to be paid by the tenants of the IFSC for 25 years, was promised to a museum in Stack A, once the doors are open. There is a major financier who is making a presentation to the Board of the DDDA for the use of CHQ. Does anyone know who this person/group might be?
If this financier is approved, the museum element will be lost.
See article by Colm Keena in The Irish Times, March 29, 2010. “Docklands development authority approached on CHQ ‘takeover’, in Home News, p. 5