OPPOSITION REACTION:MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has been accused of "poor and partisan judgment" for waiting so long to refer the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said the Minister had voted down a similar proposal from Fine Gael in the Dáil six months ago.
He said the Fine Gael Bill would have allowed the CAG to launch a full investigation of dodgy property dealings at the Dublin docklands at an earlier date, but Fianna Fáil and the Green Party had voted it down.
“It is crystal clear that John Gormley’s priorities lie with protecting his Fianna Fáil partners in government, rather than getting to the heart of the DDDA scandal,” said Mr Hogan.
He said it was obvious to everyone at that stage that there were systematic conflicts of interest for years in the DDDA board that eventually led it to its financial ruin.
“If John Gormley had listened to us in December 2009 we could be reading the report of the CAG today, but instead the indecision of the Minister means we are still in the dark about what went on in the DDDA.
“The question has to be asked as to what has brought about this sudden U-turn and change of policy by Minister Gormley? Six months after voting the Fine Gael Bill down, what new information has forced the Minister into his embarrassing U-turn?” asked Mr Hogan.
He said the Minister had been remiss not to have launched a detailed investigation of the activities of the DDDA board and the conflicts of interest of senior Anglo Irish bankers at an earlier stage. “John Gormley’s ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ policy couldn’t last, and his U-turn today highlights the complete folly in his approach to the DDDA.”
Labour Party Environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy welcomed what she termed the “belated decision” by the Minister to publish the two reports.
“The reports confirm what we already know – that there were very serious failures of corporate governance at the DDDA.
“The full extent of the mismanagement was revealed in the annual report of the DDDA published last November, which showed a deficit of €213 million, and the taxpayer facing a huge financial black hole over the disastrous decision to purchase the IGB site,” she said.
Ms Tuffy added that there were also serious questions about the adequacy of the political supervision of the DDDA as it embarked on its reckless, developer-driven strategy.
“The decision of Minister Gormley to bring the DDDA within the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General is welcome, although it has a ring of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted,” she added.
Dublin South East Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews backed the decision to bring the authority within the remit of the CAG.
“There have been truly shocking reports into corporate governance in the DDDA. The King report found that there was a loose culture in relation to some internal systems of financial controls, and identified that value-for-money considerations were largely absent in the work of the authority,” said Mr Andrews.
He added that he wanted to know about the extent of the relationship between Anglo Irish Bank and the board of the DDDA.
“The public need to know more about the deal that was done in 2006 which saw the DDDA take a 26 per cent stake in the former Irish Glass Bottle Site,” he said.
