THE CHAIRMAN of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has written to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee asking it to postpone its ongoing inquiry into the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend because of its possible impact on a separate legal battle on the acquisition.
John Tierney, who is also Dublin city manager, wrote to the committee last month after it published a special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General which identified a number of significant shortcomings in the authority’s financial management, planning function and management of board business.
The report was particularly critical of the DDDA’s role as part of a consortium that bought the site for €431 million in 2007. Most of that investment has been written off and the site is now worth just over a tenth of that, €45 million.
The PAC, which acts as the public spending watchdog, began hearings on the issues last month and had begun inviting senior DDDA officials to attend a meeting later this month.
The authority is currently defending a case taken by Donatex and developer Bernard McNamara in which they are claiming about €100 million from the DDDA, according to Mr Tierney.
In the letter, Mr Tierney said the authority had very serious concerns about the impact the PAC proceedings would have on the authority in its defence of the legal action.
“We believe that any continued inquiry (before the court determines the issues) by the PAC will be detrimental to the conduct of the case in circumstances where the publication of the (comptroller’s) report and the hearings before the PAC are already being used by the [opposing side] in an attempt to advance their case . . .
“With the utmost respect, the authority asks the PAC to consider . . . postponing any further inquiry until the case has been determined by the Commercial Court.”
The committee has referred the correspondence to its own lawyers and is awaiting advice on how it will respond.
But a source close to the committee said this weekend that it was concerned about the implications of the PAC ceding its right to inquire until other court proceedings had been exhausted.
The source said that not alone would it have repercussions for its inquiry into the DDDA’s involvement of the Irish Glass Bottle site but it might impact on its ability to proceed with a banking inquiry.
A subcommittee has completed a 290-page report setting out its options for holding a full inquiry into the circumstances leading to the collapse of Irish banks and the events leading up the bank guarantee in late 2008. The report has recommended as its preferred option a so-called “inquire, record and report” model which would allow the committee overcome the limitations laid down by the Abbeylara ruling, which prevent Oireachtas committees making findings of fact against third parties.
Under this model, the committee conducts inquiries in public, records the responses of witnesses and reports on the proceedings. It makes no findings of fact. According to the report, its reporting of the evidence instead “provides a basis from which to draw lessons and assess the need for reform”.
The subcommittee stressed the urgent need for a proper inquiry and also argued it should be conducted by the PAC. However, it concluded that any inquiry would be unlikely to be in a position to commence until Easter next year.
Sources yesterday also said that if the DDDA request were granted, the banking inquiry would be beset by similar long delays. They also pointed to other difficulties, including the constitutional protection for Cabinet confidentiality and the difficulties in compelling witnesses who were not connected, or no longer connected, to public bodies within PAC’s remit.
