MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has said he will publish the reportedly “explosive” Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) report once he receives advice from Attorney General Paul Gallagher on its legal implications. Government sources last night indicated he was expected to report back within weeks.
Former Green Party senator Déirdre de Búrca called for its immediate release, saying the report – submitted on February 5th by DDDA chairwoman Prof Niamh Brennan – would contain “significant evidence of malpractice” that would cause discomfort in Fianna Fáil.
"I'm not convinced that there is the willingness there to go ahead to publish it and to act on its findings. My own sense would be that there will be an attempt to sit on it or to delay its publication," she said on RTÉ Radio 1's This Weekprogramme. It is understood the report has only been read by a "tight circle" of people, including the Minister and Attorney General and that it is unlikely to be published until after the Government has made a decision on what to do about its contents.
According to sources, the report would have “legal implications” and could be the subject of court actions by individuals named. One source said it was “pointing big red arrows at salient issues including unhealthy relationships and abuses of power”.
Prof Brennan, who is the wife of former Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell (a long-time constituency rival of Mr Gormley), was appointed to chair the DDDA last March because of her expertise. Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said: “The fact that John appointed Niamh Brennan, who is I think probably the leading person here on good corporate governance, was exactly the right thing to do”. But her report had to be examined by the Attorney General, he added.
One of the major issues the report is believed to deal with is how the DDDA became involved in the ill-fated consortium led by property developer Bernard McNamara to buy the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend for €412 million at the peak of the boom. The deal was financed by a loan of €288 million from Anglo Irish Bank, whose former chairman, Seán Fitzpatrick, was a member of the DDDA’s board while the DDDA’s then chairman, Lar Bradshaw, was also a director of Anglo. Both denied any conflict of interest.
It is believed the report makes a large number of recommendations on corporate governance. It is accompanied by two other reports Prof Brennan commissioned – by chartered accountant Ray King and planning consultant Declan Brassil.
“I’m afraid Déirdre de Búrca knows nothing about these reports,” the Minister said yesterday. “She hasn’t read the reports. I know she feels aggrieved about not getting the European job but what she’s saying now bears no relation to the truth.”
Ms de Búrca, who resigned from the Seanad last week, has said she was prompted by the failure of Fianna Fáil to honour a commitment to her party, rather than her personal disappointment at not getting a position in EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn’s cabinet.
A spokesman for the Minister said Ms de Búrca had “never once” raised the issue with him. “The only interaction she ever had on it was when John Gormley himself raised the issue at a parliamentary party meeting to inform colleagues of his concerns about the authority and the need to address them.”
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Mr Gormley should publish Prof Brennan’s report immediately, as did Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, who said he would be raising it in the Dáil this week. Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan called on the Minister to release it after tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting.
Green TD for Dublin Mid-West Paul Gogarty said the parliamentary party was “just briefed that this issue was coming up and Prof Brennan would be reporting. We were told that there would be information in the report that would be quite revealing but we weren’t given any detail of what it was”.
The Minister’s spokesman said Mr Gormley had “met Prof Brennan the week the reports were furnished to the department to discuss how best to implement their recommendations, but he must first receive advice from the Attorney General’s office on the contents of the reports”.