The company selected to run the National Aquatic Centre secretly transferred ownership of its lease to a Limerick businessman on the same day that it signed the lease with the State body set up to manage the project by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the High Court heard yesterday.
As the State body, Campus & Stadium Ireland (CSID), opened its case to have Dublin Waterworld removed as operator of the centre over multiple breaches of its lease, it was claimed that the company created a trust to immediately transfer ownership of the lease to Pat Mulcair.
Mr Mulcair is the owner and a director of the Limerick-based Roadbridge road-building firm. The transfer took place in April 2003, about a year after Mr Ahern removed former civil servant Paddy Teahon as head of CSID over the selection of Dublin Waterworld to operate the €62 million centre.
CSID counsel Denis McDonald SC suggested that its effect was that Dublin Waterworld would not be in a position to pay rents it owed on the lease. Some of the rents were to be calculated as a portion of profits, but the transfer of ownership of the lease meant that Dublin Waterworld would never return a profit.
"There was a trust set up in favour of Mr Mulcair under which Mr Mulcair purported to become owner of the tenant's interest in the lease . . . My clients thought they were dealing with Dublin Waterworld. They didn't know they were dealing with Mr Mulcair," said Mr McDonald. This "extraordinary situation" came to CSID's attention only last Monday, he said.
Dublin Waterworld had no opportunity to respond to these claims in court yesterday as Mr McDonald did not complete his opening statement in the case.
News of Mr Mulcair's involvement follows weeks of controversy over claims of widespread leaking of water from the pool complex. CSID denies these claims.
Mr Mulcair was never mentioned during the controversy surrounding the original award of the contract. This emerged when a shelf company called Waterworld UK, which was part of the consortium which won a tender to design, build and operate the centre, took only a minority stake in Dublin Waterworld.
Mr Mulcair is a well-known business figure in Limerick. His other directorships include Motorway Investments Ltd and Mid-Western Hospitals Development Trust, a charity.
