Two senior members of the Shannon Foynes Port Company are fighting serious allegations of impropriety made by a Limerick business figure to the chairman of the State-owned body, businessman Kieran MacSweeney.
The port company's board moved several weeks ago to initiate an internal inquiry chaired by retired civil servant Michael Guilfoyle, but the investigation has not yet started because the business figure has not set out his allegations in writing.
However, a written account of is expected imminently. Without a written claim, the investigation cannot proceed.
The issue has created serious tensions at the board of the company, which has been working for months on a significant redevelopment plan for the Limerick docks to be funded by the sale of its 44-acre property holding in the area.
At the same board meeting that was informed about the allegations, the board unexpectedly suspended the process of selling off the property.
The spokesman for Shannon Foynes said the two issues were unrelated and that the board was treating the investigation as a separate matter to the sale process.
A public tender sale managed by Jones Lang LaSalle had been under way for some months before the process was stopped in order to facilitate consultation with local stakeholders.
Bids of €110-€200 million had been received from property developers. Last June a local company called Hegarty Metal Holdings, which is not the party making the allegations, brought a High Court action against the sale on grounds that the process was limited to property developers.
The Shannon Foynes spokesman said the sale process would go ahead when the suspension was lifted.
"It was suspended because there was a requirement for stakeholders to be engaged with further than had happened heretofore," he said.
"The Limerick Docklands Initiative is proceeding."
In relation to the claims made against the company members, he said: "Verbal allegations have been received. A retired assistant general secretary in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has been appointed to chair an investigation committee. We have no confirmation of written allegations arising."
The businessman who made the allegations declined to comment yesterday when asked about the case.
His claims to Mr MacSweeney, which were made in the offices of Limerick solicitors Holmes O'Malley Sexton, have been strenuously denied by the two individuals.
The board of the Shannon Foynes company has met in emergency session on several occasions in recent weeks to discuss the situation, most recently last Sunday.
The company has told the business figure making the allegations and the two people at the centre of his claims that it will pay the legal expenses of the party whose version of events is upheld by the investigation.
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