It is not clear why Norman Turner, a British national with a Cork mother, wanted an Irish passport, writes Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent.
The British businessman who was helped by Bertie Ahern to secure an Irish passport in 1994 now lives in Switzerland where he heads an international property group.
Norman Turner is the chief executive officer of the Midia Group, which has its headquarters in Lugano and operates around Europe.
According to the group's website, midiagroup.com, "in the last 24 months Norman [ Turner] has raised more than €200 million in equity and more than €650 million in debt for projects in Central Europe".
It says the group has its origins in a series of real estate developments formed in the 1980s by Turner and Edward JA Clucas. "Following the successful completion of more than €1 billion of commercial development in the UK property sector in the mid-1990s, Midia expanded its operations internationally. The group now offers a comprehensive, professional investment, development, and project management and real estate consultancy throughout Europe."
Efforts to reach Turner through his Lugano office yesterday were unsuccessful.
On Wednesday Fine Gael's Phil Hogan disclosed that Bertie Ahern had assisted Turner in getting an Irish passport in August 1994. The passport was renewed in 2006, when Turner made the application himself to the Irish embassy in Berne, Switzerland.
It is not clear why Turner, a British national whose mother was from Cork, wants to have an Irish passport. Turner was a director of a number of Irish companies, and took up residence here during the 1990s when he was seeking to promote a hotel, conference centre and casino project in the disused Phoenix Park Racecourse.
The project, promoted by the Sonas Consortium, would have involved very significant investment. The accounts of Ariadler Holdings, which managed the project, show that £2.33 million (€2.96 million) was spent on promoting it in the period from last 1993 to December 1995. However, it foundered when the government refused to issue a casino licence.
The setback did not arrest Turner's career. In 2005 Midia had plans to float a company called First Croatia Properties (FCP) on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market. However, the flotation was cancelled after the company said a US-based fund had subscribed €83 million, more than FCP was seeking to raise on the markets.
Midia is currently involved in a large biotechnology park project in Croatia.
British Companies Office files show that in 2003 John Patrick Mara, son of the former Fianna Fáil press officer PJ Mara, was appointed a director of Midia Investments Ltd. The other directors of the company were Louise Turner and Steven Turner, understood to be Turner's daughter and son.
The company was dissolved a few years later, seemingly for failing to lodge accounts. It is not clear that it ever traded.
PJ Mara acted as press officer for the Sonas consortium in the 1993/1995 period, having resigned his position with Fianna Fáil.