Docklands authority to get new code of governance

THE DUBLIN Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) board members now behave “like judges” in order to avoid accusations of bias, according to chairwoman Prof Niamh Brennan.

The DDDA annual report released last week showed an operating loss of €27 million last year compared to a €3 million surplus in 2007. Prof Brennan yesterday told the Oireachtas environment committee a new code of governance for the authority was being formulated.

“Board members have to behave almost like judges . . . We don’t go hobnobbing with developers and things like that because that would suggest bias,” she said.

Prof Brennan said board members did not go to social functions or have personal relationships with people who might submit applications to the authority.

She said the DDDA’s finances were in a “fragile state” and the biggest challenge facing the authority was how to handle the investment in the Irish Glass Bottle site.

The DDDA has a share of the liability of Becbay Ltd, the company that bought the Irish Glass Bottle site for €400 million at the peak of the property market in January 2007. Prof Brennan said discussions were under way with the Department of Finance and the Department of the Environment on the matter, and the position of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) would also be relevant. Under questioning from Phil Hogan of Fine Gael, Prof Brennan said an association with Anglo Irish Bank, by virtue of common directors, had not served the authority well.

Mr Hogan also asked Prof Brennan to explain the motivation for the DDDA’s involvement in the Irish Glass Bottle site. Prof Brennan said she found that question difficult to answer. She had seen quite a lot of documentation concerning the decision but it was not clear to her what was going on “behind the scenes” that led to the decision.

Earlier, Prof Brennan told the committee it was unfortunate that the good work the DDDA had done in the past was now over-looked, “and this has been very difficult for the staff to deal with”.

However, she insisted that discontinuing the authority would not get rid of its problems. “The problems will not go away merely by burying the authority in some other organisation.”

The DDDA’s banking position was a little more certain now than it was at the time the report was prepared, she added.

She said the board had the “ability, commitment, drive and energy” to see the authority through its current problems.